Union Budget 2015: Govt to encourage corporatisation of public sector ports

Pitching for corporatisation of state-run ports in the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the government will encourage them to become companies under the current legislation.

Presenting the Budgetary proposals for 2015-16, Jaitley said, "Ports need to attract investment as well as leverage the huge land resource lying unused with them and to enable us to do so ports in public sector will be encouraged to corporatise and become companies under the Company's Act".

He said, the exemption to construction, erection, commissioning or installation of original works pertaining to an airport or port is being withdrawn. India has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust), Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar (formerly Tuticorin Port), Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61 percent of the country's total cargo traffic.

Meanwhile, the workers of all the major ports have announced an indefinite strike from March 9 against any government's move to corporatise the sector.