The Indian government’s Ministry of Shipping has credited technology investments as the reason for growth at all its major ports.
India’s 12 major ports handled 273.96 million tonnes of cargo between April to August 2017, an overall growth of 3.26% against the 265.31 million tonnes handled during the corresponding period in 2016, according to the Indian Port Association.
The figures support India's drive to weed out old obsolete laws and enhance the connectivity of ports as part of its Sagarmala Programme, which aims to achieve port-led development through connectivity enhancements, modernization.
India recently connected all its ports through a RFID tagging project to improve the entry and exit of trucks and in-port movement through gates by removing paperwork and enhancing security by recording the information.
Ports have become a driver of socio-economic change in the Make in India campaign, devised in 2014 to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub.
Ports in Kolkata, Paradip, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mumbai and JNPT, all experienced an increase in traffic from April to August 2017.
The highest growth was registered by Cochin Port with 20%, followed by New Mangalore and Paradip with 13%, Kolkata – including Haldia with 12% and JNPT with 6%.
JNP's growth is significant as it is the biggest container port in India, handling around 55% of the country's containerized cargo.
Cochin Shipyard recently demonstrated the country's popularity with investors after it became oversubscribed 76 times during its launch on the stock market.
Traffic at India's five busiest ports during April to August 2017:
- Kandla Port: 43.99 million tonnes (mt) (16.06% share)
- Paradip with 40.37 mt (14.74%)
- JNPT with 27.54 mt (10.05%)
- Mumbai with 25.84 mt (9.43%)
- Visakhapatnam with 25.45 mt (9.29%).