India’s major ports controlled by the union government recorded a 4.3% year-over-year increase in container throughput in fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, says a report in the Times of India.
The irony is that while ports handled by the private sector witnessed a slowdown in shipments, the government-owned major ports saw an increase in their share of cargo traffic for the first time in seven years!
According to the Data, the 12 major ports witnessed a 4.3% rise in cargo traffic, estimated at 606 million tonnes. The private sector players, which have an over 40% share, saw an under 1% rise.
India's 32 prominent ports handled 1,080 million tonnes of cargo in 2015-16, compared to 1,052 million tonnes in the previous year as exports fell through the year and import remained muted due to the economic slowdown.
Several initiatives, including greater monitoring had improved the efficiency of major ports, say industry observers.
The revival of port sector is also evident from the trend of a reduction in average turn around time from 2.55 days in 2012-13 to 2.03 in 2015-16. The average output of ship berth per day has also increased from 11,800 tonnes to 13,809 tonnes during this period.