The transport ministry is now focusing on promoting waterways as an extensive transport mode in the country and is chalking up plans to develop ports. Already the major ports in the country have plans to commence capacity expansion projects to the tune of 350 mtpa in this financial year itself. The ports have a target to boost the capacity up to 500 mtpa by 2015.
Union Shipping Minister, Nitin Gadkari, said that, ?India plans to double the ports? capacity from the current annual capacity of 800 million tonnes to 1,600 million tonnes over the next 5 years.?.
He added that ?Ports and roads play a key role in development. The country?s GDP can be boosted by 2 per cent if these key infrastructure sectors are developed to their potential.? The government is also in the process of reviewing the role and functioning of the tariff regulator, TAMP, to remove any bottlenecks in the approval process and facilitate growth. The government has initiated a total of 72 projects for the sector under PPP mode. Of these 28 projects worth Rs 8,945.86 crore have been already completed. The remaining forty-four projects worth Rs 30,220.78 crore are at different stages of completion as per the information shared by Minister of State for Shipping, Krishanpal Gurjar, with the Lok Sabha. .
India has one of the largest merchant shipping fleets among the developing countries and is ranked 17th in the world. .