Owing to factors hurdles in land acquisition, environmental and other statutory clearances and financial closure, several projects in major and non-major ports are held up.

According to a study conducted by Icra, there are about 30-40 greenfield non-major ports that have high promise and potential but low implementation. These projects are held up by a host of issues stated above.

Some of the projects held up in major ports are - Chennai container terminal, Mormugao coal terminal and Paradip BOT terminals, Ennore container terminal.

K Ravichandran, senior vice-president, co-head corporate sector ratings, Icra said each of these projects could have investments of between Rs 300-700 crore.

The study, however, shows that there was more progress in awarding of projects at major ports including public private partnership projects in 2012-13 than in the previous year.

A total of 32 projects with investment of Rs 6,770 crore were finalised and awarded in 2012-13 as compared to just 3 in 2012 though this fell short of the planned target of 42 projects.

The report added “despite the uptick in project awards, actual implementation of these projects could see further delays as seen in the case of projects awarded during the previous years at major ports.