Even as the Chennai Mega Container Terminal is awaiting security clearance, Shipping Minister G K Vasan said his ministry has recently come out with new guidelines to streamline processing of security clearance proposals expeditiously without compromising on security aspects.
Delivering the inaugural address during the National Conclave on Shipping here on Monday, he said the award and implementation of projects to create and add capacity at ports have been affected by factors such as security clearance of bidders, environment clearance, land acquisition issues and litigation.
He said the shipping ministry is in constant dialogue with all agencies, including ministry of defence, home affairs, external affairs, environment and forests, prime minister’s office, cabinet secretariat and planning commission to remove all bottlenecks on implementing the projects.
Interestingly, his comments come in the wake of the Chennai Port awaiting security clearance for it’s mega container terminal.
Chennai Port trust chairman Atulya Mishra told reporters that two bidders have evinced interest in developing the `3,686 crore mega container terminal, north of the Bharti dock at Chennai Port.
He said the capacity of Indian ports went up to more than 1200 million tonnes by March 31 this year from about 1100 million tonnes per annum in the previous financial year.
Federation of Indian Export Organisation president Rafeeque Ahmed highlighted the need to boost competitiveness of Indian ports and said that FIEO has submitted a report highlighting the projected shortfall in port capacity in view of long term export-import target to reach four per cent of world trade.