The Indian government has embarked on a plan to convert 12 major ports to corporate entities ?C a move that would give these ports the much-needed freedom to set tariffs and compete with foreign and Indian private ports to which they are losing traffic, the Financial Express (India) reported.

According to a senior government official Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) would be made a company in 2010-11, and the process for corporatisation of at least two more ports would be initiated in the same fiscal.

Ennore Port is the only corporate entity among major ports in the country ?C it was corporatised in 2001 ?C while all others are governed by trusts set up under the Major Port Trusts Act 1963 (MPTA), which has many restrictive provisions.