Confident of contributing at least one per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by March 2016 from the shipping sector alone, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said the Centre is targeting a net profit of at least Rs1,000 crore from its 12 major ports in the next one year.
“In one year of governance, we have been able to reverse the decline which was observed in the performance of major ports from 2008 to 2014. A visible improvement is seen in their performance in 2015,” said Gadkari during a media interaction on Wednesday.
“The volume of cargo handled increased by 4.6 per cent and revenue increased by 8.7 per cent in 2015. We are expecting the figures to double by the next financial year,” he said.
Gadkari said the Government is going ahead with the port modernisation programme and his Ministry will seek Cabinet nod on the same as it tries to tackle the opposition by trade unions to corporatisation plan for ports.
“We are working on the report we received from the expert committee by which we can change the existing law to implement modernisation of ports, increase their efficiency and to make our decision making processes faster,” said Gadkari.
“We will give more power to port chairman and board, as it is imperative to efficient functioning of ports,” he said.
Gadkari said the Ministry of Shipping is ready with the report on port modernisation. “We are going to submit it to the Cabinet. After approval, we will implement it. Corporatisation is not ruled out (and) it is to be declared by the Finance Minister. It is on the agenda,” Gadkari added.
He said there is a stiff resistance from trade unions and some political parties so the Government is amending the Major Ports Act but it would be ensured that the interest of workers is not compromised.
Gadkari said massive steps are underway to overhaul the shipping sector as the Government plans to make waterways its focus for transportation of goods and cargo to propel the GDP growth.
Gadkari said that 104 projects have been started at ports and 7,500 km of coastal area could be instrumental in jacking up the economic growth.
“All major ports will add 100 million tonnes capacity by 2018 and have plans to spend about Rs15,000 crore per annum on port development,” said Rajive Kumar, secretary, Ministry of Shipping.
Kumar said the 12 major ports at present have the cumulative net profit of about Rs1,500 crore. The government plans to boost the capacity of 12 major ports and about 200 minor ports to 2,000 MT by 2018. The present capacity of ports is about 1,400 MT, he added.
Gadkari said steps were under way to reduce the turnaround time for ships to two days from an average of four days to enhance efficiency. He said efforts are on to deepening the draft at ports to 20 metres so that big ships of over 2 lakh tonnes could come and result in big savings.