Union minister replies to queries on shipping industry and national waterways

He said that the Union government proposes to develop a number of new and small ports for commercial shipping transportation. Based on the traffic and cargo scenario of the 12 Major Ports, a Master Plan has been prepared for expansion of port capacity, which includes a number of new ports.

The minister said that expansion, modernization and upgradation of major ports in the country is a continuing process to keep them abreast with new technologies and to meet their commercial requirements.

The process inter-alia involves construction of new berths and terminals, mechanization of existing berth and terminals, capital dredging for deepening of drafts for attracting large vessels in port channels, road and rail connectivity etc.

Under the Sagarmala programme of the central government, 142 port projects for various major ports have been identified for modernization and infrastructure development.

These infrastructure projects will be implemented on PPP basis with major part of the cost being met by the ports from their internal resources and the remaining from private sector partners.

Government Budgetary Support (GBS) is provided to ports in respect of some of the projects, basically relating to capital dredging, connectivity etc. Non-Major Ports fall under the jurisdiction of State Governments who plan these activities with regard to them.

The minister said that the central government proposes to develop new sea routes and shipping services connecting with various countries. 

These services are reviewed and restructured as per the viability study, giving due regard to the availability of cargo for a given port-pair at desired freight levels, transit time and other such considerations which impact the service schedule and profitability.  

New sea routes are considered with a view to enhance regional connectivity from the strategic and trade perspectives, and also to enhance maritime cooperation with neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand, the minister said in his reply.

In another reply, the minister said that a decision to undertake development of National Waterways (NWs) declared under The National Waterways Act, 2016 is based on Techno Economic Feasibility Study and Detailed Project Report, commissioned on each of them, by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).

This Act has been enforced with effect from April 12 this year. 

It has been decided to undertake development of 37 NWs in the next three years. 

Specified stretches of River Sutlej and Beas have been included in the list of declared NWs as NWs No. 17 and 98. respectively.

On NW-1 (River Ganga), works have been awarded under the Jal Marg Vikas Project for construction of Multimodal Terminals at Varanasi and Sahibganj and Navigational lock at Farakka and award of work for Multimodal Terminal at Haldia is in the final stage, the minister said.

On NW-2 (River Brahmaputra), Ro-Ro transportation between Dhubri and Hatsingamari has commenced and slipway facilities are being constructed at Pandu.

Normal development works are ongoing on NW-3, in Kerala.

On NW-4, award for tender for dredging of shoals between Vijaywada and Muktiyala on River Krishna is in the final stage.

On NW-5, work for development of fairway in the non-tidal stretch between Erada and Padanipal has been awarded.

Tendering for award for projects on the remaining 32 NWs to be undertaken in the next three years will begin from November 2016 and go on till December 2018.

The minister said that traffic in major ports has been steadily growing.

The overall traffic handled by the major ports has increased from 555.49 million tonnes in 2013-14 to  581.34 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 606.37 million tonnes in 2015-16.  In 2016-17, 370.45 million tonnes of traffic have been handled upto October 2016.

Image: Pon Radhakrishnan Twitter