The Union Shipping Ministry has issued a directive to all the maritime States to set up their State Maritime Boards at the earliest, as part of its initiatives to give a major fillip to non-major ports.

At present, only three maritime States – Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu – have their respective maritime boards in place. India's maritime vision envisages the non-major ports to handle about 51 per cent of the targeted throughput capacity of 3.2 billion tonnes by the entire ports sector by 2020 – the combined capacity crossed one billion-tonne mark earlier this year.

The Union Shipping Minister, Mr G.K. Vasan, who chaired the 13{+t}{+h} meeting of Maritime State Development Council held in Hyderabad, said: “the maritime States have agreed to set up their boards at the earliest. It was also agreed (at the meeting) that all major and non-major ports will give priority berthing for Navy and Coast Guard vessels.”

The meeting also decided that all ports dealing with export-import cargo should install Vessel Traffic Management System, manned by qualified personnel, the Minister told media persons after the two-day meeting on Tuesday.

It was also decided that all major ports will install radioactive material detectors and implement port community system (PCS) for facilitating paper-less transaction to enhance efficient operations.

Piracy concern

Mr Vasan announced that Somalian pirates who had hijacked vessel, m.v. Suez, in August last year had left the ship, releasing all the 22 crew members, including six Indians on board, on Monday.

“After this release, there are still 39 Indians in the custody of Somalian pirates. Since 2007, 189 Indian crew members have been hijacked by the pirates and till date we could secure the release of 150. We are making discreet efforts in association with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Navy, to get the remaining crew released,” he said.

Replying to a question, he said the ministry was working out a proposal with the MEA and Defence Ministry to have armed guards comprising ex-navy personnel on board vessels that pass through the pirates-invested region of Gulf of Eden.

Tax-free bonds

The Ministry of Shipping was waiting for the final go-ahead from the Finance Ministry to allow ports raise funds through issue of tax-free bonds. The Union Budget has allowed ports to issue bonds worth Rs 5,000 crore to raise long-term funds this fiscal.

Four major ports, including JNPT, have shown interest in issue of these bonds, but the Shipping Ministry is yet to receive the guidelines for such a process from the Finance Ministry. Either individual ports would be asked to issue the bonds, or it could be done through a dedicated financial institution.

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