Technology Advancement Ups Productivity at India՚s Major Ports

With 12 major ports handling 273.96 million tonnes cargo from April-August, 2017- the growth is attributed to technological advancement for their modernization and reforms for enhancing ease of doing business.

Overall Traffic Growth at Major Ports

The country՚s 12 major ports together handled 273.96 Million Tonnes of cargo between April to August, 2017 as against 265.31 Million Tonnes handled during the corresponding period previous year, an overall growth of 3.26% .

Seven Ports (Kolkata, Paradip, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mumbai and JNPT) registered positive growth in traffic during the period April to August 2017.

Portwise Growth

The highest growth was registered by Cochin Port (19.99%) , followed by New Mangalore (13.26%) , Paradip (12.57%) , Kolkata (incl. Haldia) (11.45%) and JNPT (6.18%)

Cochin Port growth was due to increase in traffic of POL (27.99%) and Containers (12.79%) .

Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) registered positive growth of 19.08% , mainly due to increase in iron ore traffic.

Volume of Traffic

Together, five ports handled around 60% of major port traffic during April to August, 2017:

  • Kandla Port handled the highest traffic- 43.99 Million tonnes (16.06% share)
  • Paradip handled 40.37 Million Tonnes (14.74% share)
  • JNPT handled 27.54 Million Tonnes (10.05% share)
  • Mumbai handled 25.84 Million Tonnes (9.43% share)
  • Visakhapatnam handled 25.45 Million Tonnes (9.29% share) .

Commodity-Wise Breakdown

  • Percentage share of POL was maximum i.e.. 34.00% ,
  • Container (20.17%)
  • Thermal & steam coal (12.82%)
  • Coking & other coal (7.49%)
  • Iron ore & pellets (6.84%)
  • Finished fertilizer (1.17%)
  • FRM (1.10%) .
Chart of Traffic Performance
Chart of Traffic at Major Ports

Measures to Increase Efficiency

  • The RFID tagging at gates implemented at all ports enables seamless entry-exist of trucks to optimize cargo flow, besides enhancing security.
  • Legislative reforms to weed out obsolete laws
  • Enhancing connectivity of ports to improve efficiency under its Sagarmala Programme.

Examrace Team at Aug 20, 2021