Port without borders
This week a joint meeting of the Committee for National Maritime Policy and the Committee for Natural Monopolies (under the Council of Federations) has been held in St. Petersburg. Its major issue was the approval of seaport limits which became more complicated after the Law on Seaports of the Russian Federation came into effect. Geographical coordinates are not enough for borders approval today. Cadastral plans are required as well as the layouts of territorial planning for different types of transport on both federal and regional levels. To avoid the process delay it was decided to approve the limits stage by stage having started from the outer limits of the existing ports.
Work problems
Russia’s Federal Agency of Marine and River Transport (RosMorRechFlot) has been discussing the process with ports’ and regions’ representatives for two weeks already. Uncertainty constitutes a serious problem for the portstoday. “We appoint captains, which become ‘kings without kingdoms’ as the limits of their competence have not been approved yet,” Serik Zhusupov, Executive Director of Russia’s Association of Commercial Seaports, says. “Having not determined the ports’ limits it is impossible to determine the competence of the ports administrations or to open border checkpoints,’ Nikolai Asaul, Chairman of the Transit Transport Committee under St. Petersburg Administration, comments.
Looking for no royal roads?
Before the Law on Seaports was approved, the Ministry of Transport and ports had done a lot in execution of documents needed for the Government Decree on approval of port limits, Igor Rusu, deputy head of RosMorRechFlot, told Thursday. In particular, geographical coordinates of the territories and water areas were determined for almost all the ports. However, from the moment the Federal Law No 261 on seaports of the Russian Federation and on amendments into certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation came into effect a lot of new aspects appeared. For example, the Law determines the territory of a seaport as a plot or plots of land not covered by water thus demanding a cadastral plan and passport. According to the governmental position, geographical coordinates are not enough today, Igor Rusu underlines. Cadastral inventory is necessary for each port with identification of all plots of land within a port’s territory.
However, it is not the only thing needed. The Government Office also thinks the Ministry of Transport should develop and furnish the layouts of territorial planning for federal transport facilities including maritime, railway and other types of transport. Constituent entities of the Federation should also provide their own layouts of territorial planning. Then the Government Office will be able to approve the ports’ limits. Igor Rusu also noted this work may last for a long time as there are no requirements and methods to regulate the development of territorial planning layouts. So RosMorRechFlot plans to introduce a number of amendments into the existing law.
From outer borders to the whole
The new procedure for approval of port limits was news indeed for certain participants of the meeting, for example, for Nikolai Asaul who said he had not heard before about any reasons for limits approval delay. “Our limits are completely brought into compliance with the data of the State Land Cadastre and Master Plan of St. Petersburg,” he said. “Correlation of port limits with territorial planning layouts is a new approach though not evident for us.”
According to Serik Zhusupov, RF Government is to adopt some 10 resolutions and some 60 orders as regards port limits. However he noted that besides the procedure disclosed by Igor Rusu there are intermediate provisions in the law. In particular, the limits approved by the Ministry of Transport in the form of special documents are considered to be the limits of the existing ports. “We are first of all to legalize the limits of the existing ports. For that purpose RosMorPort and seaport administrations will be ordered to provide the materials to be then approved by the Ministry of Transport,” Serik Zhusupov said. He also emphasized that the procedure required by the Government Office should be followed parallel to this work.
Vyacheslav Popov, Chairman of the Committee for National Maritime Policy, also proposes successive work on the issue. According to him, it is necessary to determine outer geographical borders of port before transition to internal borders as ports’ territories are often occupied by facilities having nothing to do with port activities. When making successive steps there is a possibility to leave some of the problems for future to prevent interference into the port system as a whole. Besides, Vyacheslav Popov proposed to develop a precise algorithm so that port limits were approved in complete compliance with the existing legislation.
Mariya Mokeicheva
Work problems
Russia’s Federal Agency of Marine and River Transport (RosMorRechFlot) has been discussing the process with ports’ and regions’ representatives for two weeks already. Uncertainty constitutes a serious problem for the portstoday. “We appoint captains, which become ‘kings without kingdoms’ as the limits of their competence have not been approved yet,” Serik Zhusupov, Executive Director of Russia’s Association of Commercial Seaports, says. “Having not determined the ports’ limits it is impossible to determine the competence of the ports administrations or to open border checkpoints,’ Nikolai Asaul, Chairman of the Transit Transport Committee under St. Petersburg Administration, comments.
Looking for no royal roads?
Before the Law on Seaports was approved, the Ministry of Transport and ports had done a lot in execution of documents needed for the Government Decree on approval of port limits, Igor Rusu, deputy head of RosMorRechFlot, told Thursday. In particular, geographical coordinates of the territories and water areas were determined for almost all the ports. However, from the moment the Federal Law No 261 on seaports of the Russian Federation and on amendments into certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation came into effect a lot of new aspects appeared. For example, the Law determines the territory of a seaport as a plot or plots of land not covered by water thus demanding a cadastral plan and passport. According to the governmental position, geographical coordinates are not enough today, Igor Rusu underlines. Cadastral inventory is necessary for each port with identification of all plots of land within a port’s territory.
However, it is not the only thing needed. The Government Office also thinks the Ministry of Transport should develop and furnish the layouts of territorial planning for federal transport facilities including maritime, railway and other types of transport. Constituent entities of the Federation should also provide their own layouts of territorial planning. Then the Government Office will be able to approve the ports’ limits. Igor Rusu also noted this work may last for a long time as there are no requirements and methods to regulate the development of territorial planning layouts. So RosMorRechFlot plans to introduce a number of amendments into the existing law.
From outer borders to the whole
The new procedure for approval of port limits was news indeed for certain participants of the meeting, for example, for Nikolai Asaul who said he had not heard before about any reasons for limits approval delay. “Our limits are completely brought into compliance with the data of the State Land Cadastre and Master Plan of St. Petersburg,” he said. “Correlation of port limits with territorial planning layouts is a new approach though not evident for us.”
According to Serik Zhusupov, RF Government is to adopt some 10 resolutions and some 60 orders as regards port limits. However he noted that besides the procedure disclosed by Igor Rusu there are intermediate provisions in the law. In particular, the limits approved by the Ministry of Transport in the form of special documents are considered to be the limits of the existing ports. “We are first of all to legalize the limits of the existing ports. For that purpose RosMorPort and seaport administrations will be ordered to provide the materials to be then approved by the Ministry of Transport,” Serik Zhusupov said. He also emphasized that the procedure required by the Government Office should be followed parallel to this work.
Vyacheslav Popov, Chairman of the Committee for National Maritime Policy, also proposes successive work on the issue. According to him, it is necessary to determine outer geographical borders of port before transition to internal borders as ports’ territories are often occupied by facilities having nothing to do with port activities. When making successive steps there is a possibility to leave some of the problems for future to prevent interference into the port system as a whole. Besides, Vyacheslav Popov proposed to develop a precise algorithm so that port limits were approved in complete compliance with the existing legislation.
Mariya Mokeicheva