New draft ports bill may hurt Odisha’s maritime dream

BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha aspiring to be a major maritime state by exploring the potential along its 480 km-long coastline, the state government apprehends that the Indian Ports Bill, 2021, if implemented, will be a major setback to that dream.
The state government has already raised objection to certain provisions in the draft Indian Ports Bill anticipating that the proposed legislation may end states control over non-major ports. If the ports bill gets implemented, the state government said it will centralize all powers with the Maritime States Development Council (MSDC).
At present, the Centre controls operation of major ports while coastal states or their maritime boards have full authority over non-major ports.
“The state government will lose its control over operation of non-major ports if the proposed ports legislation by the Centre is implemented. While our state assembly has already passed a legislation to have a maritime board to streamline maritime operation in the state, the new bill has no such provision for a maritime board,” said a senior official of the state commerce and transport department.
The official said the new legislation may hamper the state’s plan for development of non-major ports through public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
While Paradip port in Odisha is considered as a major port, the ones at Dhamra and Gopalpur are non-major ports.
Besides, four more non-major ports — one on the Subarnarekha river, a riverine port on the Mahanadi in Kendrapada district, one at Jatadhar river mouth and another at Astaranga — are in the pipeline. There are eight other potential locations identified for development of ports along states coastline.
Earlier, the Bihar government had evinced interest to set up a port facility along the state’s coastline, which has been accepted by the Odisha government. Besides, the government also has plans for logistics park projects at Dhamara, Gopalpur and Subarnarekha.
Experts said though there is a need to streamline operation of non-major ports, steps taken by coastal states for development of ports along their coastline should not be discouraged.
“There is a need for national planning on number and location of ports and their areas of operation so that incidents like a major port extending its limits to another existing state port or central government planning a new port adjacent to where a state is already developing a port do not occur in future. But coastal states have shown enormous initiative in developing ports, whether through PPP or otherwise. We should not kill that initiative,” former CEO of Dhamra port, Santosh Kumar Mohapatra, told TOI.
While the state’s commerce and transport minister Padmanabha Behera has written a letter communicating Odisha’s objection to certain sections of the bill, official sources said the commerce and transport department has sought more time from the shipping ministry to convey its clause-by-clause views on the draft bill.