• NET Web Desk

The Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways – Sarbananda Sonowal stressed on developing and promoting the nation’s blue economy; and suggested that all ports should prepare master plan in order to become Mega Ports by 2047.

Addressing the concluding event of three-days long ‘Chintan Baithak’, the Union Minister highlighted the ideas and innovations required to promote India’s marine economy.

During the event, Sonowal suggested the major ports to draft land policy guidelines, explore potential of satellite presence out of port limits.

In order to make SPVs more efficient and effective, the Minister directed the officials to repurpose these facilities, to make them lean and agile towards achieving the desired objectives.

He also insisted on enhancing operational performance of Dredging Corporation of India and importance of multimodal connectivity.

Sonowal also directed the ports to develop independent feedback mechanism to identify gaps and resolve  them in consultation with all the stakeholders.

It also proposed 100% financial assistance for developing dedicated coastal berths at ports through Sagarmala programme and to offer more berths on PPP mode.

The Chintan Baithak witnessed deliberation on various innovative projects, such as – Buffer Parking Yard for Container Trailers, Smart Vessel Traffic Management System, 5G Network Pilot Project, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System for Oil Pipeline Operations, Automated Vehicle Scanning, RFID Scanning Of Personnel, Drone Surveillance, Green Warehousing System, Rejuvenation of Waterbodies, etc.

It was co-chaired by Shripad Yesso Naik and Shantanu Thakur, Ministers of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and attended by Chairpersons of all major ports, and Senior Officials of MoPSW.