India working to shift to 80% landlord model at major ports by 2030

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) has become the first major port in the country to shift to a cent per cent landlord model, with all berths being operated on a public-private partnership model, Ramachandran told the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit 2024.

"We have 12 major ports, and we have a huge capacity...we want to shift to an 80 per cent landlord model by the end of this decade," Ramachandran said.

Developing port-based industrial clusters, investments in the maritime sector, ensuring PPP models and multi-modality are the four pillars on which the ministry is working on to improve costs and ease of doing business, he said.

The country boasts of 111 waterways now compared to five 10 years ago, Ramachandran said.

"We have reformed the Major Ports Act, the Inland Vessels Act. We have made changes in the model concession agreements (MCAs) to make them more private sector friendly, banking friendly and investment friendly,” he was quoted as saying by a domestic news agency.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)