Maritime Agenda 2010-20
In 2011, the Government of India had launched the lofty Maritime Agenda, a perspective plan of the Shipping Ministry for the present decade. The Maritime Agenda projects a total traffic of 2494.95 million tonnes for all major and non-major ports taken together and a capacity of 3280.04 million tonnes. The proposed investments in ports by 2020 is expected to be 119449.41 crore and in non-major ports it is 167930.84 crore.
Agenda for Ports
The agenda for the decade for the Ports are:
- Create Port capacity of 3200 M.T. for handling about 2500 M.T. of cargo
- Increase India’s share in global ship building to 5 per cent.
- Increase India’s share of seafarer to 9 per cent of the global strength by 2015
- Develop Two New Major Ports one each on east and west coasts
- Establishing ‘Indian Ports Global’ for overseas investments by Indian Ports.
Agenda for Shipping
The agenda for the decade for Shipping are:
- Declaration of Coastal Shipping Policy
- Establishment of a ‘Freight Exchange
- Creation of Ombudsman/ Tribunals for shipping matters
- Formation of an independent Marine Casualty Investigation Cell
- Ro-Ro Ferry service in Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Cambay and other suitable places.
Other Agenda
The agenda also envisages:
- Enactment of a new Indian Ports Act replacing Indian Ports Act 1908 and the Major Port Trusts Act 1963
- Enactment of Shipping Trade Practices Act
- Control of piracy through concerted international action
- Renewal and strengthening of Indo-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transport
- Bilateral maritime agreements with selected countries/regions for mutual benefit.
