Gujarat to invest Rs 74,000 cr in ports to boost coastal trade
Drawing an ambitious Rs 74,240 crore plan for its ports in the next 10 years, Gujarat tops the list of eight coastal states that have proposed Rs 1.67 lakh crore projects to boost seaborne trade, in terms of investment.
"State wise analysis of proposed investment in projects indicate that investment in non-major ports of Gujarat at Rs 74,240.59 crore would be around 44 per cent of the total investments in non-major ports by March 2020," a Shipping Ministry official told PTI.
In a bid to boost coastal trade, eight maritime states in the country have drawn Rs 1.67 lakh crore investment plan to create an additional capacity of about 1,294 million tonnes (MT) in the next 10 years.
These states -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Orissa house about 200 non-major ports possessing a capacity to handle 346.31 MT of Cargo at present.
After Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh has the highest investment plan for the period (2011-20) at Rs 33,540 crore followed by Rs 23,736 crore plan by Orissa.
Maharashtra, the official said has proposed Rs 20,417 crore investment in its non-major ports.
Most of the projects will be on public-private- partnership (PPP) or build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis, the official added.
He said that the private sector is likely to contribute 96 per cent of the project cost for non-major ports which come under the purview of the state governments.
Remaining requirement of Rs 3,678 crore is planned to be contributed by the state governments through internal resources, gross budgetary support etc.
The total volume of traffic handled by all the Indian ports during 2009-10 was 849.9 MT and non-major ports accounted for about one-third of the seaborne trade.
The projects include deepening of channels, construction of berths, rail-road connectivity etc.
The government has already announced an investment of over Rs one lakh crore in 13 major ports, majority of which will come from the private sector, to expand their capacity by 767.15 MT in the next 10 years.
The major ports' capacity was recorded at 616.73 MT on March 31, 2010.
India at present has 13 major ports - Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Kolkata (with Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin, Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin, Kandla and Port Blair under the control of Centre. Non-major ports fall under the purview of states.
Earlier, this year, the government unveiled a new Maritime Agenda to take major and non-major ports capacity to 3,200 MT from 617 MT on March 31, 2010.