Constituting a Maritime Port Regulatory Authority, forming specialised tribunals to curb anti-competitive practices and providing speedy and affordable grievance redressal mechanism are some of the proposals in the draft Indian Ports Bill 2020.

According to a release, the draft Bill seeks to enable the structured growth and sustainable development of ports to attract investments in the port sector for optimum utilisation of the coastline by effective administration and management of ports.

The up-to-date provisions of the proposed Bill will ensure safety, security, pollution control, performance standards and sustainability of ports.

Safety and security

The Bill ensures that all up-to-date conventions or protocols to which India is a party, are also suitably incorporated. This will promote marine safety and security in the true sense.

The proposed Bill will provide measures to facilitate conservation of ports taking into account the prevalent situation with respect to the high number of non-operational ports, it added.

It shall further ensure greater investment in the maritime and ports sector through the creation of improved, comprehensive regulatory frameworks for the creation of new ports and management of existing ports, the release said.

A game-changer

Minister of State, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Mansukh Mandaviya, said, “We are working on creation of a National Port Grid. This Bill will be a game-changer in the Indian maritime sector specially for bringing more investments. The Bill will bolster structured growth and sustained development of ports and ensure achieving this objective on a fasttrack basis. Consequently, it will result into revolutionary maritime reforms transmuting the Indian maritime set-up entirely in the times to come.”

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