Committee to study financing plans for port projects

The Union government of India has set up a committee to look into the financing plans for port projects in the current Five-Year Plan, Exim News Service informs.

The committee will be headed by the Planning Commission member, Mr B. K. Chaturvedi.
The committee will suggest capacity addition targets for the current Plan, along with financing models for the port sector in the next Plan.

The government was concerned over the tardy progress in the sector. The Shipping Ministry had been given a target of adding 500 million tonnes of capacity at Major Ports during the 11th Plan but has added just 70 million tonnes so far.

"We have set up a committee to look for alternate modes of financing for the port sector and see whether the budgetary allocations are adequate. We want the Ministry to do far more projects than they are awarding currently to quicken the pace of development in this sector," Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, said.

The Ministry had set a target for awarding 17 port projects in this fiscal but has not awarded a single one so far. It has, however, managed to push five projects carried over from last year’s unrealised target. Four more from last year are yet to be settled, an official said. The projects include development of iron ore berths, container terminals, bulk cargo handling berths, among others at Paradip, Visakhapatnam and Ennore Ports.

(Source: Transport Weekly)