Govt plans to expand 100 ports for larger vessels
The government is planning to prepare over 100 non-major ports in the country to handle large vessels.
By Priyanka Talwar & Radhika Bhalla, TNN |
NEW DELHI: The government is planning to prepare over 100 non-major ports in the country to handle large vessels. It is chalking out a comprehensive strategy to enhance country’s port capacity from 600 m tonnes to 2000 m tonnes by 2016.
“Given that the growth rate of cargo has been more than 10% in the last two years and trade volume is expected to grow by over 25%, India must target a total port capacity of 1,500 m tonnes by the end of ’12 and 2000 m tonnes by ’16,” shipping secretary AK Mohapatra said.
The government is planning to upgrade non-major ports as one of its strategies in this direction. “Of the 188 non major ports in India, only about 65 are effectively functioning in terms of their capacity to handle large vessels. We intend to utilise these ports to their full capacity,” he added.
The action plan also includes developing new ports. “Deepening channels of existing ports, setting year-wise targets for increasing capacity at all non-major ports, creating new berths and developing infrastructure for port connectivity are some of our priorities, he added.
Mr Mohapatra accepted that India is far behind in terms of port capacity compared to its neighbour, China, even as almost 95% of India’s trade moves by sea. Inspite of having a 7,600 km long coastline India’s total capacity is 4.61 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs).China’s port capacity is, however, over 11 times that of India’s capacity.
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Comparing the largest ports in both countries, China’s Shanghai port grew 17.8% from last year to reach its present capacity of 443 million tonnes whereas the Vishakhapatnam port in India handled a capacity of 50 million tonnes in the last fiscal. In other words, Shanghai port alone has a total capacity which is a little less then India’s total port capacity at 600 million tonnes. “While major ports have always been at the forefront of development, we expect an equal contribution from the non major ports, which are the states’ responsibility. There must be a convergence in the approach followed by states and the centre for port development,” Mr Mohapatra said.
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