All 12 state-owned major seaports to become autonomous under new port bill

February 13, 2020: Mansukh Mandaviya, minster for shipping, informed on Wednesday that the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the new ‘Major Port Authority Bill 2020’ that will give independent decision making power to all 12 major ports in the country.

The port will have a corporate style management structure and will be free to fix port charges.

The bill that is all set to be introduced in the current session of parliament will replace the 'Major Port Trusts Act, 1963'. The new law aims to ease settlement of disputes among port users, speed up decision making in land acquisitions and tariff changes, minimise operation and maintenance (O&M) cost, increase exports from the country and make Indian ports competitive in international markets with new technologies.

“Under the 60 years old existing act, all major ports has to approach the government and related regulatory authorities to take even the smallest decision which tampers the operations and existence of state owned ports, particularly when they want to compete with private ports,” said Mansukh.

Cabinet chaired by PM Sh @narendramodi ji has approved Major Port Authority Bill, 2020 to replace existing Major Port Trust Act; to provide more operational autonomy to ports, fast decisions will be possible at port level only; will be introduced in ensuing session of Parliament. pic.twitter.com/4tiPBouEqn

— Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) February 12, 2020

The industry responded in a cheerful manner as Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman & co-founder, Feedback Insfrastructure Services tweeted “New life ahead for govt-owned major ports. Cabinet clears Major Port Auth Bill 2020 replacing 1963 Act. Bill makes existing regulator, TAMP, quite irrelevant; vests commercial powers in respective port authorities and provides a far friendlier format for PPPs.”

✔⚓ New life ahead for Govt-owned "major ports." Cabinet clears Major Port Auth Bill 2020 replacing 1963 Act. Bill makes existing regulator - TAMP - quite irrelevant ; vests commercial powers in respective Port Authorities and provides a far friendlier format for PPPs. Finally !

— Vinayak Chatterjee (@Infra_VinayakCh) February 13, 2020

The shipping minister continued “The old act doesn’t have any dispute settling mechanism which delayed the settling of differences between port users and particularly in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Ports can now save their time and money by making independent decisions on land or tariff. The government expects a cut in O&M cost with the new law which will in effect reduce handling charges and logistics cost. This will result in the increased competitiveness of Indian exports in International market.”