Govt to bring new law to govern ports

The Government is planning to introduce Indian Port Bill, new legislation to govern the ports in the country, in the coming monsoon session.

The bill, which is currently is being drafted, aims to provide sustainable growth and development of all ports in the country on the line with international maritime obligations.

The bill will fix the minimum distance between two ports, standardisation of facilities, simple regulatory and administrative mechanism, fix charges and tariff and other issues said an official in the Ministry of Shipping.

At present, India has 13 major ports and 44 functional non-major ports under the state administration. Though most of the major ports are being managed by the government, gradually the government wanted to retreat from operating ports and hand it over to private parties.