Port capacity in India to top 3 billion tonnes by 2020
17 Dec 2011
Indian ports handled total cargo traffic of around 870 million tonnes in 2010-11, which is expected to reach 2,495 million tonnes by 2020, minister for shipping G K Vasan said today.
For handling this volume of traffic, the capacity at the ports should go up to 3,130 million tonnes by 2020. This would involve investment of around Rs2,77,000 crore over the next 10 years, the minister said.
While the major ports handled 570 million tonnes, non-major ports handled the remaining 300 million tones, or around 34 per cent of the total cargo.
Kandla, Vishakhapatnam, JNPT and Chennai handled 48.4 per cent of the major ports' cargo in 2010-11.
Vasan was said this at the seminar on ''Development of Ports in Tamil Nadu'' in Chennai today.
He said about 80 per cent of our total exports is carried by sea, out of which 60 per cent is carried through containerised cargo. India enjoys a vibrant port sector comprising of 12 major ports and 176 notified non-major ports.