Maha to amend port policy soon

The Maharashtra Government is likely to upgrade its Port Policy in a way that will stop developers from using government land for the purpose of profiteering.
"Currently, there are developers who bid for port land on a PPP basis in the name of development and (do) nothing on it for years and years.
"Finally, after 15-20 years of holding the land, they seek a customer to whom they can sell their land to. Huge profits are made out of the government land and no development is done," minister of state for Home Ranjit Patil told PTI.
He said that during a discussion on the port policy held with various agencies yesterday, the government sought to look for changes in the policy, by virtue of which the government can get hold over a port that has not been developed by builder concerned in a certain period of time.

"When a piece of port land is handed over to developer under a PPP model, they give various excuses for not starting development work on the land. One of them is that they have not received the requisite clearances from the Centre and thus have stalled their work. Now, the state government will seek permissions from Centre and hand them over to the builder for development within a certain period of time," he said.
Elaborating further, the minister said the matter is in an initial stage for now.

"Discussions are going on after which we will come up with a draft plan. We will then seek suggestions from various agencies and finally amend the Port policy," Patil said.

He said five out total 46 ports in the state have been handed over to builders while rest are with government.
"Even where we have already handed over port land, if the builder does not get the required permissions and start work within a certain period of time, we will take the land back from such a developer," Patil said, adding that the new policy will come into effect within six months.