Ministry of Shipping which has decided to introduce amendments to age old Shipping Trade Practices Act in Winter Session of Parliament, will not be able to accord speedy approvals for seaports expansion activities following serious objections raised by Ministry of Environment & Forests in this regard.
Disclosing this while inaugurating ASSOCHAM Conference on Ports and Shipping Mr APVN Sarma secretary shipping informed that ports expansion drive henceforth would be subject to clearances from Ministry of Environment & Forests which has argued liberal approvals for seaport’s capacity expansion damaged sea beaches and therefore, a cautious approach needs to be adopted before such permissions are granted by government.
Responding to a query raised by Mr K C Mehra former Dy Managing Director TATA Steel who heads Shipping & Logistics Division in ASSOCHAM on Shipping Trade Practices Act amendment, Mr Sarma answered that for many years it could not be possible but now amendments to this Act would be introduced in the forthcoming Winter Session of Parliament to make shipping trade practices transparent, industry and investment friendly.
The Shipping Secretary made it clear that permission for seaport’s expansion would henceforth be granted after such drives have been appraised by Ministry of Environment & Forests and accordingly communicated to Ministry of Shipping. He however added that by 2012, it would be efforts of UPA government to increase capacities of all airports for cargo handling to an extent of USD 1.5 billion tones.
Mr KC Mehra chairman of ASSOCHAM Committee on Shipping & Logistics suggested the government to build capacities in seaports so that India’s sea sores have infrastructure to accommodate both exports and import cargo for crude, coal, equipment and other commodities including metals and even food grains.
Mr Anil Agarwal past president of ASSOCHAM also emphasized that India has ambitious plans and if its economy has to grow at projected growth rate, seaports modernization should be looked with top priority so that future targets both imports and exports are met which are possible with seaports capacity expansion as per India’s requirement.
Source : SteelGuru