Exactly a year after the 11/7 train bombings, India is set to finalise a global agreement that might ensure Mumbai — and the country — is in future sealed off from a major overseas landing of terrorist weapons.

On Thursday, the cabinet is likely to clear the decks for Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) to become part of the US Container Security Initiative (CSI), a global anti-terrorist apparatus set up after 9/11 to tighten controls and ward off major security threats in the event of a terrorist strike.

Fifty-nine ports in 27 countries are  part of the CSI.The agreement will help locate, identify, screen and seal high-risk containers, such as those containing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) at India’s busiest commercial port.

Once the cabinet okays the signing of the ‘Declaration of Principles and Basic Implementation Procedures’ for container security, four Indian Customs officers will be posted to the National Targeting Centre, the CSI’s intelligence and information hub at Washington DC. Four US homeland security officers will be stationed at JNPT in Mumbai.

The proposal sent to the cabinet by the Ministry of External Affairs says CSI aims to reduce the risk from sea-bound shipping carriers concealing WMDs with non-intrusive pre-shipment screening, making global maritime trade and infrastructure more secure.

Sources said that in case of a terror attack, a CSI-adherent port would be able to resume functioning much sooner than a non-CSI port. The US is India’s largest trading partner; so inspecting containers going out of Mumbai would be cheaper and faster than if carried out on arrival at a US port.

Also, internationally, premiums for shipping lines and companies operating from a CSI-adherent port will be lower.

The US agents stationed at JNPT — and likewise the Indian officers in DC — will not enjoy diplomatic immunity, though they will function under the Indian and American embassies. They will not be in uniform, and will not carry guns. The Americans will be closely supervised by Indian Customs officers, and will be subject to prescribed national security regulations.

Fifty-nine ports in 27 countries are currently part of the CSI; Mumbai will be the sixtieth. India was first approached to join in April 2002, three months after it was launched. The latest effort got the nod from the high-powered committee of secretaries on January 12, 2006, following which the finance, home and shipping ministries, the security agencies, and finally the ministry of external affairs gave it the nod.