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The Shipping Ministry has sought more financial powers from the Centre to award public-private-partnership (PPP) projects.
This is one of the measures that the Ministry has suggested to speed up award of projects to private investors at various ports.
The Ministry has sought powers on par with the Road Ministry, according to the Shipping Secretary, Mr P.K. Sinha. “We should have more powers to award the PPP projects up to Rs 500 crore. At present, we have powers to award up to Rs 300 crore,” he told newspersons.
According to Mr Sinha, PPP project of value above Rs 300 crore is sent to the Union Cabinet for approval.
The other major proposal by the Ministry is on security clearance to companies that are bidding for PPP projects.
The Government could consider giving security clearance for a year, instead of project-wise clearance, for the 25-30 companies that frequently bid for major port projects , he said.
To expidite projects
The Ministry is also trying to expedite the steps involved in awarding the PPP projects. The various stages starting from the draft project report to request for proposal to award the contract.
The Ministry has suggested that some of these may be taken up simultaneously, Mr Sinha said.
Under the Shipping Ministry's National Maritime Development Programme, 276 projects were identified for implementation from April 2005 to March 2012. The total investment involved under the programme was Rs 1,00,339 crore at 2004-05 prices.
But many of the projects, including the mega container terminal project in Chennai, are still in the bidding stage.
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