In line with its decision to develop robust waterways for business and tourism, the NDA Government has scaled up work on 44 port projects worth over Rs 30,000 crore under public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. It has set themselves a two-year deadline for the completion of the works.
“Forty-four projects worth Rs 30,220.78 crore are at different stages of completion under PPP mode in the ports sector,” said Krishnapal Gurjar, Minister of State for shipping in a written reply to lok Sabha on Thursday.
“The Government has taken a total of 72 projects for the sector under PPP mode and of these 28 projects of Rs 8,945.86 crore have been completed and about 44 should complete in the next two years,” he said.
India has 12 major ports—Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, VO Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country’s total cargo traffic.
India has one of the largest merchant shipping fleet among the developing countries and is ranked 17th in the world, he said. Minister of Shipping Nitin Gadkari has claimed that once completed, the waterways transport system will bring in investment of at least Rs 80, 000 crore.
In the year’s annual budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced an outlay of Rs 11, 600 crore for building the outer Harbour Tuticorin port.