Captive port policy to be in 15 days: Shipping Secy

The government today said it will bring out a captive port policy in a fortnight to reduce the turnaround time in ports of the country.

"Captive port policy will be out in 15 days. We are finalising the policy," Shipping Secretary K Mohandas told reporters here on the sidelines of a CII summit on steel sector.

He, however, refused to share the details of the policy, by saying that it is still in the process of being redefined.

India has 13 major ports but they suffer from long turnaround time for goods. According to Economic Survey 2009-10, the average turnaround time of major ports in the country was 3.87 days in 2008-09, against 10 hours in Hong Kong.

On the other hand, Adani Group promoted Mundra Port has a turnaround time of close to two days.

Turnaround time means the ships have to wait for long before they get space to stop.

Industry sources said that through the policy, the government is likely to allot captive berths at major ports to private companies, which will enable them to utilise the given facilities exclusively for their own goods.

This initiative by the shipping ministry will provide a level-playing field to the private companies with their public sector competitors, the industry sources said, while adding that the captive units will result in lower berthing and turnaround time and ships would not have to wait for berthing.

The Shipping Secretary added the government is thinking to develop National Waterways No-5 between Talcher in Orissa to Paradip port as it is a commercially viable project.

"It is a fairly big project with various components involving several arms of the government like waterways, Ministries of Water Resources and Environment. A project is being structured for that and then, it will be put out for bidding," he said.