Review Of Port Privatisation Deferred

The policy paper seeks to encourage private participation in the port sector to spur investment for augmenting cargo handling capacity.

The policy has been framed by the surface transport ministry after carefully assessing the views of potential investors and concerned organisations.

The policy is said to be liberal in approach and opens a flood-gate of opportunities for private investment.

The jobs, however, are to be allotted on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis on a long-term lease contract.

The private sector is allowed to open new ports, particularly minor ports where required investment is much less than in the case of major ports.

Also, industry specific captive ports will be permitted under the new policy. All this is in addition to liberalising the policy on setting up new facilities such as berths, jetties, terminals, warehouses etc.

The policy package may be fine tuned again before the cabinet takes it up for consideration. An official spokesman said that the matter was not on the agenda of the meeting yesterday.!-- #include virtual="/incs/bottom.inc"-->