India: Shipping Ministry to fast-track construction of port berths

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 May 2009

The Ministry of Shipping will award six concessions for construction of cargo and container berths at ports and initiate process for another 20 through public-private partnership mode in the next three months. "In the next three months, we hope to award six concessions for ports and initiate process for 20 other concessions," Minister for Shipping G K Vasan told reporters here on Friday after taking charge of the ministry.
The Ministry would also take steps to strengthen the Indian Maritime University in the same time period, he added.
Among the other areas that the Ministry would focus on are taking the cargo handling capacity at various ports in the country to 1,000 MT per annum.
"We hope to achieve 1,000 MT cargo handling capacity by the end of the current five-year plan," the minister said.
The ministry, which was clubbed with the Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways in the previous government, would also work towards modernisation and mechanisation of cargo handling equipment at ports, enabling ports to handle larger ships, completing the Sethusamudram project and strengthening shipping activity and inland water ways.

Source: PTI