NEW DELHI: To meet the larger vision of achieving Zero Carbon Emission Goal, Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways has launched ‘Harit Sagar’ the Green Port Guidelines.
The guidelines were launched by Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways and AYUSH in the august presence of Shripad Y Naik, Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Tourism and other senior officials of the Ministry today in New Delhi.
Harit Sagar Guidelines – 2023 envisages ecosystem dynamics in port development, operation and maintenance while aligning with ‘Working with Nature’ concept and minimizing impact on biotic components of harbor ecosystem.
It lays emphasis on use of Clean- Green energy in Port operation, developing Port capabilities for storage, handling and bunkering greener fuels viz. green hydrogen, green ammonia, green methanol/ ethanol etc.
These guidelines provides a framework for the Major Ports for drawing out a comprehensive action plan for achieving targeted outcomes in terms of quantified reduction in carbon emission over defined timelines, through focused implementation and close monitoring of Green Initiatives and to achieve Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG).
During the event the Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said Ports are undertaking green initiatives and actively contributing to the fulfilment of the “Panchamrit” commitments announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The “Harit Sagar” Guidelines- 2023 provide a comprehensive framework for our Major Ports, empowering them to create a comprehensive action plan aimed at achieving quantifiable reductions in carbon emissions over defined timelines,” he added.
The objective of guidelines is to minimize waste through reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle to attain zero waste discharge from port operations and promote monitoring, based on environmental performance indicators.
This also covers aspects of National Green Hydrogen Mission pertaining to ports, development of green hydrogen facility, LNG bunkering, offshore wind energy etc and provides provision for adopting global Green Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard.
“The launch of the Harit Sagar Green Port Guidelines is a significant step towards achieving our sustainability goals.
“These guidelines have been formulated with the aim of promoting environmental friendly practices across all our Ports,” said Shripad Naik, MoS, MoPSW during the event.
Sudhansh Pant, Secretary, MoPSW said, “Our four major ports Deendayal Port, Visakhapatnam Port, New Mangalore Port and VOC Port are already generating renewable energy more than their demand”.
He added, “From now onwards our ports will be able to evaluate themselves on the environmental indicators to know their capability in the environmental aspects.”
The award for the best absolute performance for the year 2022-23 conferred to the Deendayal Port, Kandla for handling highest cargo of 137.56 MMT.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Port received award for achieving major milestone in turn-around-time while Paradip Port got performance shield on ship berth day output.
The Kamarajar Port got recognized in pre-berthing detention time while Cochin Port received performance shield in turn-around-time (non-container port).
The award for best incremental performance was bagged by Paradip Port for attaining the highest cargo growth rate of 16.56 per cent last year.
In the incremental category another award was conferred to Mormugao Port for best ship berth day output while award was conferred to Kamarajar Port for best pre-berthing detention time. The award for the best port was conferred to Paradip Port on overall annual performance based upon cargo handling, average turnaround time, ship birthday output, and idle time at berth, operating ratio, pre berthing detention.