Cabinet okays new bill for ports

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal of the shipping ministry to replace the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 with the Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016, which will empower major ports to perform with greater efficiency on account of full autonomy in decision making and by modernising the institutional structure of major ports.

With a view to promote the expansion of port infrastructure and facilitate trade and commerce, the proposed bill aims at decentralising decision making and to infuse professionalism in governance of ports, official sources said.

The new Major Ports Authority Bill, 2016 would help to impart faster and transparent decision making benefiting the stakeholders and better project execution capability. The new legislation is aimed at re-orienting the governance model in central Ports to landlord port model in line with the successful global practice. This will also help in bringing transparency in operations of major ports.

The Cabinet, also gave its ex-post facto approval to India’s approach to Climate Change Negotiations at the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), held in Marrakesh, Morocco last month.

Approval to India’s approach to Climate Change Negotiations at the COP is intended to safeguard the interest of poor and vulnerable groups by emphasising on adaptation, loss and damage, and protecting the development space. It incorporates the interest of all strata of society in the country. Growth and development of a country are linked with Greenhouse Gas emissions.

While combating the ill-effects of climate change, the development space for India and other developing countries needs to be preserved. The approach outlined in the note enables achievement of this goal and also seeks to address the adaptation needs of the country.