‘INDIAN SEAPORTS’ –

Importance of the Indian port sector?
It plays a vital role in sustaining growth in the country’s trade and commerce.

Q	A
Importance of the Indian port sector?	It plays a vital role in sustaining growth in the country’s trade and commerce. Has an important role in fulfilling India’s dream of achieving greater global engagement and integration with its trading partners. Much of India’s port-led development initiative is expected to revolve around growth in maritime trade, given its share in terms of both volume and value in the country’s overall trade statistics.
What is the government for undertaking port-led development?	Recognising the important role port-led development can play in India, the Central government has undertaken several initiatives such as development of new ports, modernisation and mechanisation of the existing ones, and reduction of logistics costs through the implementation of increased waterways transport.
The challenges that exist.	A recent study by the Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF) titled ‘Bridging Infrastructural Deficits at Select Trade Ports in India’ observed that seaports displayed specific patterns of issues based on differences in geography, infrastructural capacity, operational aspects, contractual arrangements, and so on. For instance, the Haldia Dock Complex in Haldia, West Bengal, being a riverine port, faces the natural challenge of heavy siltation and inadequate dredging capacities. Congestion at the approach roads is a common problem at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra. Underutilisation of physical infrastructure is extremely prevalent at the Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal — at the Cochin Port.
What should be the way ahead?	In terms of infrastructure, it is important to maintain draft to serve bigger vessels, ensure mechanisation of ports through introduction of new equipment and procedures, build new facilities, upgrade existing facilities and automate systems/procedures. In terms of policy and regulatory reforms, it is important to streamline tariff determination by TAMP along with a provision for periodic revisions, ensure transparent and effective contractual arrangements in PPPs, implement strengthened communication platforms for seamless information flow among stakeholders, strengthen system integration, ensure paperless clearance of procedures and transactions, develop user information portals, and so on. Apart from reviving the ports currently operational, these measures, if duly incorporated, promise to sufficiently bolster prospective ventures as the country moves towards an optimistic maritime trade regime.

ADDITIONAL DETAIL: On SEAPORTS –


Statistics	Ports, the gateways to India’s International trade by sea handle over 90% of foreign trade. There are 12 Major Ports & 187 Minor/Intermediate ports along the 7,517 kms long coast line of the country.
List of Major Ports In India	Kolkata Paradip Visakhapatnam Ennore Chennai o. Chidambaranar Cochin New mangalore Mormugao Mumbai JNPT Kandla
FDI in Ports Sector	100% FDI under the automatic route is being allowed for port development projects.
Sagarmala project	The Sagar Mala Yojana was formally approved on 25th March 2015 by the then union cabinet. The significance of Sagar Mala Yojana India is seventh largest nation of the world and is bound by see from three directions, which makes it one of the biggest coastlines of the world. Considering such a vast coastline of more than 7,000 Km India has, it should ideally do more than 90 per cent of its import-export through sea, which is not how it happens and thus there is a huge gap in what we have and what we are currently doing. Ironically, the ports contribute to just 1 per cent of the entire GDP, whereas the road sector contributes 6 per cent and railways 9 per cent towards the gross domestic product. There is a huge contradiction in what we can do with our coastlines. Sagar Mala Yojana would boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product by 2 per cent. The focus of Sagar Mala Yojana The Sagar Mala Yojana is primarily based on the three pillars of focus, namely: Modernization of port’s infrastructure Pro-active policy utilization pertaining to ports and rendering institutional framework to the stakeholders Developing sustainable and efficient transport infrastructure so that all the ports are interconnected with the mainstream economy and best could be derived out of their availability.
Steps for modernisation of ports	The Government has undertaken the following measures to modernize the Ports: Construction of new berths and terminals; Various expansion/upgradation projects for berths Installation of new and modern cargo handling equipments Deepening draught in Ports to handle larger vessels. Implementation of Web-based Port community system. Conducting benchmarking study for upgrading the existing ports to the International standards.
Project green port	Weighing in the environmental perspective for sustained growth, the Ministry of Shipping has started ‘Project Green Ports’ which will help in making the Major Ports across India cleaner and greener. ‘Project Green Ports’ will have two verticals ‘Green Ports Initiatives’ related to environmental issues and ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’. Under Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, the Ministry has identified 20 activities with certain time-line to promote cleanliness at the port premises.

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