Minister chairs Port Review Meeting
Detailed discussions were held on developing India as ‘trans-shipment hub’ and Vision-2030 for Maritime Sector, said the Shipping Ministry on 1 Mar 2020.
The three-day discussions focused on improving the performance of the Major Ports, strengthening Major Ports infrastructure to directly compete with private or non-major ports, port modernisation, implementing e-governance to make ports faceless and paperless processing systems.
The Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya chaired the Ports Review Meeting, or ‘Chintan Baithak’, in Mamallapuram port town in Tamil Nadu.
During the second day of meeting on 29 Feb 2020, Vice President M Vankaiah Naidu had stressed on the need to develop ports at par with other global ports.
A world-class infrastructure at ports is important for the Indian economic development, said the Vice President, pointing out that coastal community development as an essential component of port-led development.
Naidu said the Sagarmala port-led development was the best step towards creating greenfield ports, modernizing the existing ports.
He suggested that ports management should aim to reduce logistics cost, dredging expenditure and also improve turnaround time.
Mandaviya gave a vision of ‘Smart, Sustainable and Safe Ports of India’ during the meeting attended by chairpersons of all Major Ports who also presented their respective Ports Performance with innovative measures, significant achievements, overall financial condition, future planning for the development of Ports.
Responding to various issues raised during the meeting, Mandaviya encouraged the ports to implement the best practices followed by the global maritime sector.
The meeting, held from 28 February to 1 March 2020, is an endeavour towards discussing and finding solutions to various challenges being faced by the ports and mapping out the prospects of growth and development of ports in India. fiinews.com
