- It has been decided that all the sub projects in NHDP Phase—III to Phase—VII would be taken up mainly on Public Private Participation route following either Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) toll mode or BOT (annuity) mode.
- The Central Government has created a dedicated fund, called Central Road Fund (CRF) for collection of cess from petrol and diesel. Presently, 2/- per litre is collected as cess on petrol and High Speed Diesel (HSD) Oil. Fund is distributed for development and maintenance of national highways, state roads, rural roads.
- The Border Roads Organization (BRO) is a road construction executive force, integral to and in support of the Army. It started operations in May, 1960 with just two projects—Project Tusker (renamed Project Vartak) in the East and Project Beacon in the West.
- The BRO is entrusted with the task of construction and maintenance of roads in the border areas, classified as general staff roads.
SHIPPING
- Ministry of Shipping was formed in 2009 by bifurcating the erstwhile Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways into two independent Ministries.
- India has 12 major ports and about 187 minor ports.
- Approximately 90% of the country’s trade by volume and 70% by value is moved through Maritime Transport.
- India has a long coastline of about 7517 km, spread on the western and eastern shelves of the mainland and also along the Islands.
- Tonnage tax is available to coastal ships registered under the Merchant Shipping Act.
- The Ministry of Shipping has set up an Indian Maritime University (IMU) on 14th November, 2008 in Chennai with campuses at Chennai, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam as a Central University.
- The existing 7 government and government aided maritime training and research institutes have been merged with the IMU. Those merged are:
- Marine Engineering and Research Institute, Kolkata
- Marine Engineering and Research Institute, Mumbai
- Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced Maritime Studies and Research, Mumbai
- TS Chanakya, Navi Mumbai
- National Maritime Academy, Chennai
- Indian Institute of Port Management, Kolkata
- National Ship Design and Research Centre, Visakhapatnam.
MAJOR PORTS IN INDIA
| Kolkata Port
|
Only riverine major port in India having an existence of about 138 years. |
| Paradip Port
|
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation in 1962 near the confluence of river Mahanadi in Odisha.
Government of India took over the management of the port from the state government on 1st June, 1965. The Government of India declared Paradip Port Trust (PPT) as the eighth major port in India in 1966. |
| New Mangalore Port | Declared as the ninth major port in May, 1974 and was formally inaugurated on 11th January, 1975. |
| Cochin Port
|
Developed due to efforts of Sir Robert Bristow.
By 1930-31 the port was formally opened for vessels. Cochin was given the status of a major port in 1936. The port of Cochin is located on the Willington island. |
| Jawaharlal Nehru Port
|
Commissioned on 26th May, 1989.
It is situated along the eastern shore of Mumbai harbour off Elephanta Island. |
| Mumbai Port
|
There are three enclosed wet docks namely, Prince’s, Victoria and Indira Docks.
Oldest of the three was Prince’s Dock, a semi- tidal dock, commissioned in 1880. |
SHIPPING CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD
- The Shipping Corporation of India Ltd. (SCI) was formed in 1961.
- The status of SCI has been changed from a Private Limited Company to Public Limited Company from 1992.
- The SCI was conferred the “Navratna” status by the Government of India in August, 2009.
- Presently, the Government is holding 80.12% of the share capital and the balance is held by Financial Institutions, Public and others (NRls, Corporate Bodies etc.).
- Presently, the SCI’s fleet stands at 75 vessels aggregating about 2.9 Million GT.
