India's major ports handled the highest ever cargo at 795 million tonne in 2022-23, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Secretary Sudhansh Pant said on April 21.
Mr. Pant further said that with transactions worth about ₹5,000 crore, the Shipping Ministry has surpassed its FY23 asset monetisation target of about ₹3,700 crore.
He also said that next week, Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will launch 'Green Port' guidelines to make India's ports green.
"Our major ports have handled the highest ever cargo in the history of the ports at 795 million metric tonne. This is 10% higher than the previous year's cargo handled," he told PTI.
India has 12 major ports — Deendayal (Kandla), Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore (Kamarajar), Tuticorin (V. O. Chidambaranar), Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port.
"Four or five of the major ports, including Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (Kolkata), Deendayal (Kandla), Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Paradip have recorded the highest ever cargo," Mr. Pant added.
He also pointed out that after many many years, the major ports have recorded a higher annual growth than that of non-major ports.
Non-major ports are administered by State governments. Many State governments have given such ports on lease to private partners. "So, this year (2022-23), major ports achieved an overall growth of 10.4%, while non-major ports achieved a growth 1.5 to 2% less than this," he said.
While the share of major ports in the total cargo was 54% and non-major ports was 46% in FY22, Mr. Pant said in FY23, the share of major ports rose to 55% and that of non-major ports fell to 45%.
"So even 1% shift is a very significant achievement for major ports, because despite so many challenges, they have increased their share by 1%," he said.
Mr. Pant also said the inland waterways increased their cargo handling by 16% to 126 million tonne in 2022-23 from 109 million tonne in 2021-22. He said the turnaround time in major ports has reduced by 3-4 hours to 48-49 hours.
