New land use policy for major ports in a month: govt

The government today said it will come out with a new policy on the use of land by the top 13 major state-owned ports in the country in a month's time.

"The Ministry of Shipping proposes to issue a revised 'Land Policy for Major Ports'... The policy will be finalised after 30 days," an official statement said.

According to the new land allotment policy, every major port shall have a land use plan covering the entire land owned or managed by the port and land can be allotted for economic activities either on a licence or lease basis, it said.

The new policy was felt necessary to sustain and improve the efficiency of major ports, the statement said.

"It was observed that land policy is one of the most significant policy frameworks guiding the overall functioning of the port sector. It is an established practice globally for ports to allot land for carrying out economic activity... enhancing their sustainability. Port lands have also been used to set up Special Economic Zones," the statement said.

The policy, it said, sets out the terms to be followed by the port trusts for allotment of port land and is applicable to all major port trusts, except for land relating to the Gandhidham Township of the Kandla Port Trust.

India at present has 13 major ports -- Kandla, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Marmagao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Kolkata, Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Tuticorin and Port Blair -- which are administered by the central government.

Around 95 per cent of the country's exports by volume and 70 per cent by value are transported by sea and the major ports account for 75 per cent of the total cargo by volume handled at Indian ports.