Major Port Authorities Act, 2021

Policy Update
Shivali Yadav

Background

For almost sixty years, India operated its Major Ports based on the Major Port Trusts Act of 1963. That system relied significantly on Boards of Trustees, while tariffs were mostly determined by another entity, the Tariff Authority for Major Ports.

Over the years, however, this arrangement began to appear excessively inflexible and too centralized to address the specific requirements of individual ports. The grievances weren’t fresh. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture highlighted the same concerns: excessive central authority, tariff-setting obstacles, and restricted operational flexibility in 2016-17 during the examination of a prior version of the Bill. The journey to the new legislation spanned several years.

The Major Port Authorities Bill was approved by the Lok Sabha on 23 September 2020; the Rajya Sabha returned it with modifications on 10 February 2021, and the Lok Sabha approved the revised version two days afterward. Presidential assent was granted, and the Ministry of Law and Justice notified it on 18 February 2021, establishing the Major Port Authorities Act, 2021 (Act No. 1 of 2021); however, it only took effect on 3 November of that year.

In November 2021, five sets of Rules were implemented, addressing master plans, the use of funds beyond port purposes, sinking funds, rate scales, accounting and auditing, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The core of the Act represented a move away from the traditional trustee model to more streamlined and empowered Boards of Major Port Authority entities, with significant influence over tariffs, land, assets, and concession agreements. The Centre maintained its control over policy, and the CAG continues to review the accounts, so oversight has not vanished. The legislation includes 11 of India’s 12 operational Major Ports; Kamarajar Port is excluded because it operates as a company governed by the Companies Act and is a subsidiary of Chennai Port.

Functioning

According to Sections 4 and 5 of the Act, the Board composition is: a Chairperson, a Deputy Chairperson, a representative from the pertinent state government, Railways, Defence, and Customs, two to four Independent Members, a nominee from the Central Government at least at Director level, and two members advocating for port workers. That results in 11-13 members for each Board, significantly more streamlined than the previous Board of Trustees arrangement.

Each Board now establishes its own tariffs in accordance with the Rules, rather than directing all matters through TAMP, allowing Boards greater flexibility in the utilization of port land, assets, and finances. A newly formed Adjudicatory Board, established under Section 54, addresses disagreements such as those between port authorities and PPP concessionaires, or grievances from users of captive berths, and possesses civil court authority. It also examines troubled PPP projects and proposes strategies to rejuvenate them.

The Regulations establishing this Board were finalized on 17 January 2023, approximately fourteen months after the Act was implemented, featuring a Presiding Officer (a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or High Court) and two Members selected from retired Chief Secretaries or equivalents, based on the suggestions of a committee led by the Chief Justice of India. Meanwhile, the Ministry had previously released guidelines on 10 May 2022 for managing troubled PPP projects, providing a temporary solution before the establishment of the official body.

Performance

Government data allow the Act’s operational impact to be situated within a longer efficiency trend. Average vessel turnaround time at Major Ports has continued to fall since the Act’s commencement, though at a markedly slower pace than in the preceding decade:

Reference Year	Average Vessel Turnaround Time
2013-14 (pre-reform baseline)	~96 hours (~4 days)
2021-22 (MPA Act comes into force)	52.87 hours
2025-26 (most recent reported)	48.84 hours

Source: Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, “India strengthens Global Maritime Competitiveness with Improved Port Performance and Faster Turnaround” (turnaround time data for 2021-22 to 2025-26); Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Year End Reviews (2013-14 baseline).

On investment, the government told the Rajya Sabha in August 2025 that just 25 PPP projects worth Rs 13,355 crore had actually been awarded at Major Ports over the previous five years against an identified pipeline of 81 projects worth over Rs 42,400 crore that the Ministry’s 2022 Year End Review had expected to be awarded by FY 2024-25.

On a more positive note, Jawaharlal Nehru Port became India’s first fully landlord port, with every berth under PPP, after signing a concession agreement in July 2022. Cargo volumes hit a record 915.17 million tonnes in FY 2025-26, up 7.06% year-on-year and above the 904 million tonne target, while overall capacity nearly doubled in a decade, from about 800 million tonnes in 2014 to roughly 1,630 million tonnes by March 2024. JNPA also cracked the top 25 globally in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index 2025, ahead of Rotterdam.

Impact

The most evident advantage in this case is structural. The Act abolished a governance structure that had seen little change since 1963, substituting it with smaller, more independent Boards that determine their own rates and oversee their assets, supported by an Adjudicatory Board equipped for effective dispute resolution. This directly addresses the centralisation issues that Parliament’s committee highlighted in 2016-17. The government has taken care to clarify that this isn’t privatisation; it informed the Rajya Sabha in 2025 that port land and core assets remain the property of the Port Authorities and the Centre, despite private operators managing an increased share of the terminal functions.

The operational performance presents a varied picture, however. Turnaround times did get better, but just by roughly 7.6%, from 52.87 to 48.84 hours, from 2021-22 to 2025-26. In comparison to the decline from around 96 hours to slightly over 50 in the ten years before the Act, it’s difficult to attribute the majority of the efficiency improvements to the law itself. These appear to be more related to Sagarmala, mechanization, and berth improvements rather than governance reform.

Investment reflects a comparable narrative of unfulfilled expectations. As per the government’s response to Parliament, only approximately 31% of the identified PPP pipeline Rs 13,355 crore of over Rs 42,400 crore planned had been awarded by mid-2025. Increased flexibility in tariffs and governance clearly assisted, but it hasn’t sufficed alone to transform the pipeline into signed contracts at the speed planners anticipated. The fourteen-month delay in notifying the Adjudicatory Board’s Rules caused ports to lack a specific dispute-resolution mechanism during the crucial time when investor confidence in troubled PPP projects was essential.

Emerging Issues

Issue 1 — Delay in Operationalising the Adjudicatory Board

Nearly fourteen months elapsed between the Act’s commencement (November 2021) and notification of the Rules constituting the Adjudicatory Board (January 2023), during which the dispute-resolution and stressed-PPP-review mechanism central to the Act’s private-investment objective was not yet functional.

Issue 2 — PPP Pipeline Realisation Gap

Only about 31 per cent of the identified Rs 42,400-plus crore PPP pipeline value (Rs 13,355 crore across 25 projects) had actually been awarded across Major Ports over five years, per the government’s own reply to the Rajya Sabha in August 2025.

Issue 3 — Turnaround-Time Gains Slower Under the Act Than in the Preceding Decade

The improvement from 52.87 to 48.84 hours between 2021-22 and 2025-26 is modest compared with the much larger decline from around 96 hours in 2014, suggesting the governance reform’s incremental contribution to operational efficiency, distinct from broader capital investment, may be limited.

Issue 4 — Persistent Delays in the Broader Port Capacity-Expansion Pipeline

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, reviewing Sagarmala implementation in its report presented on 28 March 2022, found only one additional port-modernisation project completed in the preceding year, no progress on the strategically important Vadhavan all-weather port, and cost escalation of about Rs 20,000 crore across port-modernisation projects.

Issue 5 — Heterogeneous Governance Structure Across Major Ports

Kamarajar Port continues to operate as a company under the Companies Act rather than under the Major Port Authorities Act’s Board structure, creating governance heterogeneity across India’s 12 Major Ports.

Issue 6 — Continuing Public and Stakeholder Sensitivity on Private Participation

Concerns about the scope of privatisation, first raised during the Standing Committee’s 2016-17 review of the Bill’s predecessor, persisted sufficiently that the government found it necessary to explicitly clarify in the Rajya Sabha in 2025 that no Major Port had been privatised.

Way Forward

With the governance architecture now well established across most Major Ports, the Act’s next phase of implementation should focus on converting institutional autonomy into faster, more transparent delivery.

For future port-sector reforms, notify the implementation of Rules for key institutional bodies concurrently with, or shortly after, the parent Act’s commencement, rather than more than a year later.
Publish periodic, transparent reporting on the gap between identified and awarded PPP project value, with reasons, to guide policy correction and investor confidence.
Disaggregate future performance reporting to distinguish gains attributable to governance and tariff reform under the Act from those attributable to capital investment under Sagarmala and related infrastructure programmes.
Strengthen project-monitoring mechanisms under the Boards of Major Port Authorities, given the Standing Committee’s documented findings on delay and cost escalation in the parallel port-infrastructure pipeline.
Periodically review whether a more uniform governance framework across all Major Ports would improve consistency in tariff-setting, accountability and investor experience.
Maintain transparent, regular public communication distinguishing operational PPP participation from the continued public ownership of port land and core assets.

Executed along these lines, the governance flexibility created by the Major Port Authorities Act, 2021 can be more fully translated into the efficiency, investment and throughput gains it was designed to enable, supporting Sustainable Development Goal 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure and India’s Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047.

References

Ministry of Law and Justice. (2021, February 18). The Major Port Authorities Act, 2021 (Act No. 1 of 2021). Government of India. https://legislative.gov.in/
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (2021). Year-end review 2021. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://pib.gov.in/
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (2023, January 17). Formulation of an Adjudicatory Board for Major Ports notified. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://pib.gov.in/
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (2022, May 10). Guidelines for dealing with stressed public-private partnership (PPP) projects at Major Ports. Government of India. https://shipmin.gov.in/
Rajya Sabha, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (2025, August 12). Written replies on PPP projects awarded at Major Ports and on non-privatisation of Major Ports. Parliament of India. https://rajyasabha.nic.in/
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (n.d.). India strengthens global maritime competitiveness with improved port performance and faster turnaround. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://pib.gov.in/
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (2024). Year-end review 2024. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://pib.gov.in/
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (2025). Major Port cargo performance for FY 2025–26. Government of India. https://shipmin.gov.in/
Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture. (2022, March 28). Report on progress made in implementation of Sagarmala projects. Rajya Sabha, Parliament of India. https://rajyasabha.nic.in/
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. (n.d.). Ports Wing and Public-Private Partnership Cell. Government of India. https://shipmin.gov.in/

About the Contributor

Shivali Yadav is pursuing an M.A. in Liberal Studies at Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, and is an IMPRI intern. Her work focuses on gender, education, youth, and public policy, with interests in educational equity and qualitative research.

Acknowledgment

The author sincerely thanks the reviewers and editorial team for their valuable comments, constructive suggestions, and guidance. Their feedback helped improve the clarity, structure, and analytical depth of this policy update.

Reviewers: Manish Shinde, Ambika Sharma

Publisher: Pallavi Lad

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the organisation.