Capacity at major ports to rise three-fold by 2025-26

Traffic handling capacity of major ports is projected to increase three-fold to 1,595.07 million tonnes from the current 574.77 million tonnes by 2025-26, G K Vasan, union minister of shipping, said today.

Traffic handling capacity of major ports has gone up by about 48 per cent - from 389.5 million tonnes in 2003-04 to 574.77 million tonnes in 2008-09 - in the last five years, Vasan said in his opening remarks at the first consultative committee meeting of the ministry.

Traffic handled by Indian ports have registered a growth of 5.14 per cent in April-December 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, he said. Despite recessionary trends in the world economy, port traffic in India registered a growth of 2.1 per cent during 2007-08, said Vasan.

The 12 major ports, six each on the west and the east coast, handled 72 per cent of the total port traffic while 66 non-major ports handled 28 per cent of the port traffic, he said.

Besides the issue of developing major ports in the country, the first meeting of the consultative committee also deliberated on the issues like the National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) and other major initiatives of the government in the port sectors.

The NMDP spreads over a period of seven years starting 1 April 2005. The programme will conclude in March 2012. About 276 projects in all have been identified under the project with a total investment of Rs55,804 crore. Of the 276 projects, 48 have already been completed and 70 are at various stages of implementation, he said.