In order to promote the expansion of port infrastructure, the Union Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has given approval to the proposal of Ministry of Shipping to replace the existing Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 with the Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016. The move aims to empower 12 major ports to perform with greater efficiency on account of full autonomy in decision-making and by modernising the institutional structure of major ports and once passed by Parliament will give port boards more autonomy and flexibility.
As per the proposed bill, all future public-private partnership (PPP) operators will be free to fix tariff based on market conditions and will simply need to notify the port authority. The new Bill has also proposed a simplified composition of the Board of Port Authority which will comprise of 11 members from the present 17 to 19 Members representing various interests. A compact Board with professional independent members will strengthen decision making and strategic planning. Provision has been made for inclusion of representative of the State Government in which the Major Port is situated, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence and Customs, Department of Revenue as Members in the Board apart from a Government Nominee Member and a Member representing the employees of the Major Ports Authority. One of the salient features of the Bill is that it is more compact in comparison to the existing bill as the number of sections has been reduced to 65 from 134 by eliminating overlapping and obsolete Sections.
The new Major Ports Authority Bill, 2016 would help to impart faster and transparent decision making benefiting the stakeholders as well as better project execution capability. The proposed bill is aimed at reorienting the governance model in central Ports to landlord port model in line with the successful global practice. This will also help in bringing transparency in operations of Major Ports.
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