To increase efficiency of major ports, a new berthing policy for dry bulk cargo will be in place from August 20, the government said today.
<\/br>\u201cMinistry of Shipping has formulated a new Berthing Policy for Dry Bulk Cargo for all major ports which will come into effect from August 20, 2016,\u201d Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.
<\/br>The objective of the new policy is to provide a standardised framework for calculation of norms, specific to the commodity handled and the infrastructure available on the berth besides driving higher productivity and achieving near-design capacity of the available equipment\/infrastructure, it said.
<\/br>It will reduce berthing time and overall turn-around time of ships, drive higher cargo throughput using the available infrastructure in major ports, the statement, said adding it will improve utilisation of port assets and create additional capacity without any significant capital investment.
<\/br>Further, the policy aims at increasing competitiveness of major ports by creating value for the trade through reduced logistics cost and at reassessing the capacity of the berths based on the expected performance of the berth equipments and vessels derived from performance norms.
<\/br>\u201cAll the major ports will be holding trade meetings between July 1 to July 18, 2016 to sensitise the norms, incentives, penalties and charges to be implemented,\u201d it said.
<\/br>Dry bulk cargo currently makes up over 26 per cent of the cargo handled at the 12 major ports while growth in coastal shipping is expected to add about 100-150 million tonne per annum (MTPA) of additional dry bulk cargo at ports by 2020-25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"