New Delhi,  Union Minister of Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, on Tuesday said that all ports should prepare a master plan in order to become mega ports by 2047.

Sonowal was speaking on deliberation on various innovative projects such as buffer parking yard for container trailers, smart vessel traffic management system, 5G network pilot project, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for oil pipeline operations, automated vehicle scanning, RFID scanning of personnel, drone surveillance, green warehousing system, and rejuvenation of waterbodies.

The Green Ports Policy was also discussed, which will be applicable for all the major and non-major ports of India.

The draft policy also suggested port authorities to explore the option of project financing through multi-lateral development banks/other financial institutions/any green financing agencies.

The meeting also focused on new generation automated technologies such as drone surveillance, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence etc., which can significantly improve operations at the Indian ports.