The Policy Guidelines for land management by Major Ports of India, which were approved by the Union Cabinet on January 2, was unveiled by Union Ministry of Shipping Secretary Dr Vishwapati Trivedi in Mumbai on Thursday. The policy guideline aims to provide a transparent mechanism for leasing and licensing of land in possession of the 12 Major Ports.
Paradip Port Trust (PPT) Chairman Sudhanshu Sekhara Mishra, expressing his gratitude over the unveiling of the policy guidelines, said these guidelines would give an impetus to the Major Ports and help them make optimum use of about 2.64 lakh acres of land in a transparent manner. This would attract more investment and improve the performance of the ports.
The land policy guidelines provide for a framework for allotment of land in a transparent competitive mechanism through a tender-cum-auction process. The important feature in the new policy is that the PPT projects would be granted land automatically on licence basis along with project approval.
Mishra said the tenure of lease/licence available in the new policy is a maximum five years for short-term licences inside the custom bonded areas and a maximum 30 years for long-term leases outside the custom bonded areas which can be given by the ports. This would help the ports facilitate the port users.
The PPT, which is now having the highest 108.50-million tonne cargo handling capacity per annum among all the Major Ports, would certainly gain from the new policy to further increase its capacity by harnessing its available land.