India's annual port traffic to reach 2,484 million tonnes by 2020

Port traffic in India is expected to grow at a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.32 per cent to 2,484.41 million tonnes in 2019-20 against the present level of 849.89 million tonnes.

Traffic at major ports in the country is expected to grow to 1,214.82 million tonnes by 2019-20 while traffic at minor ports is projected to grow to 1,269.59 million tonnes by 2019-20 from the current 288.80 million tonnes - a CAGR of 15.96 per cent.

Indian ports have embarked on an ambitious plan to develop new outlets, augment existing service centres, induct state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment and improve in logistics in order to meet the challenges emanating from the anticipated growth in the trade.

This will involve investments to the tune of Rs2,77,000 crore over the next ten years - Rs1,09,000 crore for major ports and Rs1,68,000 crore for non-major ports.

However, most of the investment is expected to come from the private sector, which will be undertaking development, operation and management of terminal and cargo handling facilities. Ports will limit their role to maintenance of channels and basic infrastructure.

To this end, the ports are now moving towards the ''landlord port' concept.