Ports lag behind in Rs 55,000 cr capex goal

It will require a miraculous performance from the government to meet the over Rs 55,000 crore capital expenditure target during the remaining two years of the 11th Plan for capacity enhancement at 12 major ports.
    
Major ports could only achieve a measly 10 per cent of their capital expenditure target to enhance tonnage capacity in the first three years of the 11th Plan (2007-12), according to official data.
    
Due to a lack of clearcut policies on concessionaire agreements for contractors and other procedural delays, investment of only Rs 5,717 crore could be implemented in creating additional port capacity in the first three years of the Plan (2007-2012).
    
NMDP, an ambitious programme conceived by the Shipping Ministry, had fixed a budget of Rs 55,803 crore for creating the additional capacity of 434 million tonnes (MT) in five years, over-and-above the existing 574.77 MT.
    
"Out of the total 276 projects under National Maritime Development Project (NMDP) to take the major ports capacity to 1 billion tonnes by 2012, only 50 projects could be completed so far. It makes it tough to achieve the target," a top official told PTI.
    
He said the delay was primarily on account of tardy progress in the initial two years.
    
Besides a lack of clear cut policies and documents for award of projects, there were court cases, he said.
    
The government has now taken measures like finalisation of model concessionaire agreements to expedite these projects.
    
The steps include framing new model documents for public-private partnerships (PPP) to make the bidding process uniform, he said.
    
Work is in progress on 74 projects worth Rs 16,502 crore, while 16 projects entailing a cost of Rs 3,100 crore have been approved.
    
In addition, 29 projects with an estimated expenditure of Rs 11,561 are under the process of approval, he said.
    
India has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Marmagao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Kolkata, Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Tuticorin.
    
Ports handle around 95 per cent of the country's total trade in terms of volume and 70 per cent in terms of value and of this, the 12 state-owned ports account for 70 per cent of the total traffic.