The Government has taken following steps to improve the business at Major Ports; I. Construction of new berths and terminals to enhance port capacity to minimise pre-berthing detention time and reduce turnaround time of vessels calling on the Ports. II. Modernising berths with state of the art loading/unloading equipment to improve operational efficiency. III. Deepening of channels and berths so that ports can accommodate larger vessels. IV. Improving rail/road connectivity of Ports for speedy evacuation of cargo. V. Implementation of Enterprise Resource Programme (ERP) for internal automation and EDI-PCS for paperless interaction with stakeholders. VI. Installation of VTMS for monitoring vessels traffic and navigation support. VII. Simplification of processes to reduce transaction time at Ports. Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) regulates all tariffs in respect of Major Port Trusts and the private operators located therein. Necessary modifications in the Tariff Guidelines are made from time to time to promote the development of the Major Ports, keeping in view the interest of the various stakeholders. In order to allow the competitive market forces to play a greater role in determination of tariff at Major Ports Trusts, the Government issued two new sets of Tariff Guidelines namely Guidelines for Determination of Tariff for Projects at Major Ports, 2013 and Guidelines for Port Charges, 2015. These Guidelines impart flexibility to the PPP operators as well as Major Ports owned terminals in determining their tariff. This information was given by Minister of State for Shipping, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
