Capacity of Indian Ports to Reach 3,130 Million Tonnes by 2020, Says Shipping Minister

Indian ports handled total cargo traffic of around 870 million tonnes in 2010-11. While the major ports handled 570 million tonnes, non-major ports handled around 34% of the total cargo at 300 million tones. Kandla, Vishakhapatnam, JNPT and Chennai handled 48.4% of the major ports’ cargo in 2010-11. Shri G.K. Vasan Union Minister of Shipping said this at the seminar on “Development of Ports in Tamil Nadu” in Chennai.

Shri Vasan said, about 80% of our total exports is carried by sea, out of which 60% is carried through containerized cargo. Our country enjoys a vibrant port sector comprising of 12 major ports and 176 notified non-major ports. Of the major ports, Chennai port ranks 4th in terms of volume of cargo handled in 2010 -2011, with around 12 % of the total cargo handled. Container traffic has witnessed sizeable increase, especially in the recent years across all major ports. Between 2005-06 and 2010-11, containerized traffic grew at the rate 13% per annum.

The total traffic handled in 2010-11 by Indian ports was 870 million tonnes and is expected to go up to around to 2,495 million tonnes by the year 2020. For the purpose of handling this volume of traffic, the capacity at the ports is expected to enhance to 3,130 million tonnes by 2020. The proposed investment during the next 10 years to create the expected capacity will be Rs.2.77 lakh crores, the Minister added.

Shri Vasan said, “in India, Tamil Nadu has the second longest coastline of 1,076 km next only to Gujarat. The state has 3 major ports and 22 minor ports. It is the only state in India to have 3 major ports viz., Chennai, Ennore and Tuticorin. It is heartening that Tamil Nadu boasts of the only corporate port under the Union Government with Ennore Port Limited being the first Corporate port in the country.”

The Minister referred to certain practical issues like the connectivity and the congestion issues faced by the Chennai Port. He said, in order to solve the problems arising out of these issues, the Government was taking all efforts to speedily execute the Chennai-Ennore Port Road Connectivity Project (formerly EMRIP), the elevated road project from Maduravoyal to Chennai Port, and the setting up of an integrated dry port and multimodal logistics hub at Sriperumbudur for creating off dock space for handling and storing of cargoes, especially for containerisation.

He thanked the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the Study conducted by them with a detailed analysis of the major and minor ports in the State and the current infrastructure support available, the trends in EXIM trade in the recent past and the future projections etc. The study has also made a comparative analysis with select ports in other states as well as in other countries.