India Mulls Development of Ports
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Indian Ports handle about 90% by volume & 70% of value of the country’s EXIM (Export–Import ) cargo. In order to meet the growing trade requirements of the country, the capacity of the Ports & the cargo handled by the Ports have increased over the years.
The installed capacity of the Ports which was 1312 MTPA in the year 2012-13 has gone up to 1716 MTPA in 2015-16 and is likely to reach 1897 MTPA by the end of the 2016-17.
Similarly, Cargo traffic handled by the Ports has gone up from 934 MT in 2012-13 to 1072 MT in 2015-16 and expected to be about 1133 MT by the end of 2016-17.
Expansion, modernization, development and upgradation of Port infrastructure in the country is an ongoing process including construction of new berths & terminals, mechanization of existing berths & terminals etc and upgradation of skills of human resource in the Ports.
The focus of the Government is on improving efficiency of the Ports and benchmarking them to international standards. The average turn around time of Major Ports has come down from 4 days in 2014-15 to 3.42 days in the current year (upto January, 2017).
This information was given by Minister of State for Shipping, Pon Radhakrishnan.