Major ports in India recorded a year-over-year growth of 3.46% from April to November 2017, Indian Ministry of Shipping said.
As informed, ports handled 439.66 million tons of cargo from April to November, compared to 424.96 million tons recorded during the corresponding period a year earlier.
Nine ports including Kolkata, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and Kandla registered positive growth.
The highest growth was registered by Cochin Port (17.93%), followed by Paradip (13.13%), Kolkata – including Haldia – (12.64%), New Mangalore (7.07%) and JNPT (5.69%).
During the aforementioned period, Kandla Port handled the highest volume of traffic or 72.03 million tons, followed by Paradip with 64.97 million tons, JNPT with 43.26 million tons, Mumbai with 42.33 million tons, and Visakhapatnam with 40.95 million tons. Together, these five ports handled around 60% of major port traffic.
The ministry has been working to improve various aspects of the country’s maritime industry in the last three years.
Recently, the foundation stone of the International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF) at Cochin Shipyard Limited was laid. The facility is expected to make Cochin a global ship repair hub.
Giving boost to the maritime sector under Sagarmala, the Center of Excellence in Maritime and Ship Building (CEMS) is also being set up with campuses at Vishakhapatnam and Mumbai.
Earlier this month, India was reelected as a Category B member of the Assembly of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) council, belonging to states with the largest interest in international seaborne trade.