The government today said that appropriate policy initiatives are being taken for infrastructure building in ports. Inaugurating the Maritime week in New Delhi today Shipping Minister G K Vasan said the government is committed to the promotion and development of the maritime sector. He said the capacity of Indian ports has reached 1.16 billion tonnes and it is making concerted efforts to raise it to 3.2 billion tonnes in the next ten years to make the sector vibrant. He informed that 22 projects worth more than 6000 crore rupees have been awarded to promote the development of the maritime sector. The Minister said the government is making a further revision of land policy to bring in more transparency.

Expressing concerns on instances of piracy off the coast of Somalia, Mr. Vasan said that his Ministry of Shipping, in close coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs, Indian Navy and other agencies has been making discreet efforts to secure the release of Indian maritime personnel. So far, 242 Indian crew members on board merchant vessels have been hijacked by the Somali pirates. He said as a result of concerted efforts of the government 220 of them have been released and all efforts are being made to secure the release of the remaining 22 personnel.

He said that efforts are also being taken to increase India’s share in global ship building to 5 per cent from the present 1 per cent and raising the share of Indian seafarers from the current level of 7 per cent in the global shipping industry to at least 9 per cent by 2015. He said the government plans to attract a huge investment of 2.87 lakh crore rupees by 2020 so that 12 major ports and 200 ports under states jurisdiction can handle 2.5 billion tonnes cargo.

Our correspondent adds that the major ports in the country are Kochi, Marmagao, Mumbai, Kandla, New Mangalore, Nhava Sheva on the western coast and Chennai, Haldia, Paradip, Tuticorin and Vishakhapatnam on eastern coast.