The Major Port Authorities Act, 2021 marks a shift from trusteeship to corporate governance in Indian ports. Critically evaluate.

The Major Port Authorities Act, 2021, in force from 03.11.2021, replaced the colonial-era Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 and vested the administration, control and management of India's 12 Major Ports in compact Boards of Major Port Authorities [1][2]. The shift from trusteeship to corporate-style governance is real and largely enabling, though its gains remain uneven across ports.

Evidence of the corporate governance shift

• Institutional redesign: bulky Port Trusts replaced by a compact Board with professional independent members, strengthening decision-making and strategic planning [2].
• Tariff autonomy: Port Authorities now fix their own Scale of Rates for services and assets, while PPP concessionaires set tariffs on market conditions — ending the earlier centralized rate-fixing regime [2].
• Dispute resolution: an Adjudicatory Board for Major Ports was notified to settle disputes outside ordinary civil litigation [3].
• Landlord model: Jawaharlal Nehru Port became India's first 100% Landlord Major Port, with all berths on PPP [4], shifting capital risk to concessionaires.

Limits of the transformation

• Ownership unchanged: no Major Port stands privatised — land and waterfront remain with the Government; PPP operates only through time-bound concessions, with assets reverting to the Authority [5].
• Partial penetration: only 89 of 277 berths in Major Ports are PPP-operated [5], so most capacity still runs on the older service-port pattern.
• Structural anomaly: Kamarajar Port, incorporated under the Companies Act as a subsidiary of Chennai Port Authority, lies outside the Act's direct ambit — leaving an uneven legal architecture.
• Federal asymmetry: the reform touches only Major Ports; roughly 213 non-major ports under State Maritime Boards remain outside this governance upgrade [5].

The Act is best read as corporatisation of management rather than privatisation of ownership — autonomy without dilution of public trusteeship. Extending the landlord model, harmonising Kamarajar Port's legal status, and encouraging States to mirror these reforms for non-major ports would complete the transition, aligning port governance with SDG-9's goal of resilient infrastructure.