1. Short title, commencement and application.—(1) This Act may be called the Major Port
Authorities Act, 2021.
(2) It shall come into force on such date1
as the Central Government may, by notification, in the
Official Gazette, appoint.
(3) It shall apply to the Major Ports of Chennai, Cochin, Deendayal (Kandla), Jawaharlal Nehru
(Nhava Sheva), Kolkata, Mormugao, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Paradip, V.O. Chidambaranar
(Tuticorin) and Visakhapatnam.
2. Definitions.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “Adjudicatory Board” means the Board constituted by the Central Government under
sub-section (1) of section 54;
(b) “Board” means the Board of Major Port Authority constituted by the Central Government in
accordance with sub-section (1) of section 3 for each Major Port under this Act;
(c) “capital reserves” for the purpose of this Act, shall mean the total of the reserves excluding
the reserves set forth in sub-section (1) of section 43 and the value of the current assets of the
Board in the preceding financial year;
(d) “Chairperson” means the Chairperson of the Board appointed under sub-section (1) of
section 4;
(e) “Deputy Chairperson” means the Deputy Chairperson of the Board appointed under subsection (1) of section 4;
(f) “dock” includes all basins, locks, cuts, entrances, graving docks, graving blocks, inclined
planes, slipways, gridirons, moorings, transit-sheds, warehouses, tramways, railways and other
works and things appertaining to any dock, and also the portion of the sea enclosed or protected by
the arms or groynes of a harbour;
(g) “foreshore”, in relation to a Major Port, means the area between the high-water mark and
the low-water mark relating to that Major Port;
(h) “goods” includes livestock and every kind of movable property;
(i) “grave emergency” means a condition as determined by the Central Government wherein the
Board is unable to discharge its duties appropriately and includes acts of sedition, nonperformance, unlawful and illegal actions, negligence and financial misappropriation;
(j) “high-water mark”, in relation to a Major Port, means a line drawn through the highest
points reached by ordinary spring-tides at any season of the year at that Major Port;
1. 3
rd November, 2021, Vide notification No. S.O. 4504 (E), dated 29th October, 2021, see Gazette of India, Part II, sec. 3(ii).
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(k) “immovable property” includes wharfage-rights and all other rights exercisable on, over, or
in respect of, any land, wharf, dock or pier;
(l) “Independent Member” means a Member of the Board appointed under sub-section (2)
of section 4;
(m) “Indian Ports Act” means the Indian Ports Act, 1908 (15 of 1908);
(n) “land” includes the bed of the sea or river below high-water mark, and also things attached
to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth;
(o) “low-water mark”, in relation to a Major Port, means a line drawn through the lowest points
reached by ordinary spring-tides at any season of the year at that Major Port;
(p) “Major Port” or “Major Port Authority” means the Major Port as defined in clause (8)
of section 3 of the Indian Ports Act;
(q) “Major Port approaches”, in relation to a Major Port, means those parts of the navigable
rivers and channels leading to the Major Port, where the Indian Ports Act is in force;
(r) “master”, in relation to any vessel or any aircraft making use of any Major Port, means any
person having for the time being the charge or control of such vessel or such aircraft, as the case
may be, except a pilot, harbour master, assistant harbour master, dock master or berthing master of
the Major Port;
(s) “Member” means the Member of the Board appointed under sub-sections (2) and (3)
of section 4;
(t) “notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette and the expression
“notify” and “notified” shall be construed accordingly;
(u) “Presiding Officer” means the Presiding Officer of the Adjudicatory Board appointed by the
Central Government under section 55;
(v) “owner”, —
(i) in relation to goods, includes any consignor, consignee, shipper or agent for the sale,
custody, loading or unloading of such goods; and
(ii) in relation to any vessel or any aircraft making use of any Major Port, includes any partowner, charterer, consignee, or mortgagee in possession thereof;
(w) “pier” includes any stage, stairs, landing place, hard, jetty, floating barge, transhipper or
pontoon and any bridges or other works connected therewith.
Explanation.— For the purposes of this clause, the term “transhipper” means a floating craft or
vessel, whether dumb or self-propelled, on which gears are provided for discharging cargo from a
barge or wharf and loading it into a ship;
(x) “port assets” means any asset within the port limits including land, movable or immovable
property or any other property, whether tangible or intangible, owned by or vested with the Board
through the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be;
(y) “port limits” in relation to a Major Port, means the limits including any piers, jetties,
landing-places, wharves, quays, docks and other works made on behalf of the public for
convenience of traffic, for safety of vessels or for the improvement, maintenance or good
governance of the Major Port and its approaches whether within or without high-water mark, and
subject to any rights of private property therein, any portion of the shore or bank within fifty yards
of high-water mark and the area of such Major Port as may be determined by the Central
Government by way of notification from time to time;
(z) “port related use” means any use directly or indirectly related to port operations and
activities;
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(za) “port securities” means the debentures, bonds or stock certificates issued by the Board in
respect of any loan contracted by it under the provisions of this Act or issued by any other
Authority for the payment of which the Board is liable under this Act;
(zb) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(zc) “Public Private Partnership project” means the projects taken up through a concession
contract entered into by the Board under sub-section (1) of section 24;
(zd) “rate” includes any toll, due, rent, rate, fee, or charge leviable under this Act;
(ze) “regulations” means the regulations made by the Board under this Act;
(zf) “vessel” includes anything made for the conveyance, by water, of human beings or of
goods; and
(zg) “wharf” includes any wall or stage and any part of the land or foreshore that may be used
for loading or unloading goods, or for the embarkation or disembarkation of passengers and any
wall enclosing or adjoining the same.
(2) Words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Indian Ports Act
shall have the same meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act.