Mindset change required for port sector development: CII study
By Our Economy Bureau | 14 Mar 2003
Chennai:
The central government and the states should discuss
and work together to develop India’s port sector
in a holistic manner, recommends a Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) and Ferguson study. “The present practice
of the centre taking care of the major ports and the states
looking after the minor ports will not give the required
results.”
The study, to be released at the two-day summit on ‘Infrastructure Development held by CII (southern region) in Chennai on 19-20 March 2003, looks at the southern port sector — both major and minor ports — and suggests way and means to improve ports profitability and efficiency.
Addressing the media B Sridhar, chairman, working group on ports, CII (SR), and director Bengal Tiger Line (India), said: “The key issue is to see that all the ports, particularly the minor ports, get sufficient traffic.”
Traditionally
minor ports were established as a captive facility for
a major industrial project. However, this changed with
the minor ports competing with major ports for traffic
and vice versa.
According to Sridhar, the country should also look at coastal shipping in a serious way as it is very cost-effective and will also decongest the roads.
It
should be noted that traffic for minor ports and coastal
shipping would increase only if industries are located
in away from the state capitals. And if that has to happen,
other infrastructure — road, communication network
— should be there. Sadly nobody seems to address
this issue. Even this CII seminar is more slanted towards
major ports.
Speaking about the lenders’ perspective A Balasubramanian, member, working group on ports, CII (SR), and assistant vice president (operations), Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), said: “There is a paradigm shift in lenders’ perspective. While world-class service quality is taken for granted we see whether the users are willing to pay the price proposed for such services.”
In China, the government acts like a venture capitalist. It restricts itself to the development of infrastructure while attracting the traffic for the ports and terminals, which are left for private players.