Shipping Minister urges private players to join hands with government in PPP project for ports

Expressing concern over the high logistics cost in the country, which was 30 per cent more than those in developed nations, Mansukh Mandaviya, Shipping Minister, informs,
“The government has initiated multiple steps, including strengthening inland waterways, to reduce high logistics cost. He urged private players to join hands to propel India’s growth.

“The government of India has taken a large number of steps to reduce logistics cost in the country in order to fuel growth. These include making a network of inland waterways to transport cargo in a cost-effective manner. We have made 1,400 km of waterways operational. The aim of creating a network of waterways is to reduce logistics costs, boost exports and make the country self-reliant, as per Prime Minister ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative,” Mandaviya said.

“It is time that private players join hands with government in PPP (public private partnership) projects including ports to fuel economic growth,” the minister said.
He urged private sector companies to come forward for initiatives like indigenous building of cranes for ports which so far were being imported at an annual cost of about Rs 10,000 crore.

The shipping ministry has taken initiatives like introducing the ‘PCSIx’ platform to reduce logistics costs. Port community system ‘PCS1x’ is a cloud-based technology that offers services like notification, work-flow and track and trace and it is estimated that this feature alone will reduce up to two days in the life of a transaction.

“Inter-ministerial consultations were on to boost multimodal transport in the country. Enhanced focus on waterways has resulted in higher cargo movement on inland waterways as well as the Indo-Bangladesh protocol route which has enabled faster delivery of cargo to north eastern states, including Tripura, he added.

The minister informs that only about 67 of the country’s 200 ports are functional at present and a number of steps have been initiated to develop all the ports. Mandaviya also stressed on the need for enhancing Indian flag vessels to promote the port and shipping sector.