12 major ports surpass private peers in cargo handling:Gadkari

Boosted by a slew of steps to enhance efficiency, the country's 12 major ports surpassed private players by handling a record 673.43 million tonnes of cargo in 2016-17, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.
"Major ports under the Centre handled a record 647.43 million tonnes (MT) of cargo in 2016-17 registering an annual growth rate of 6.79 per cent against 4.32 per cent in 2015-16," the Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister told reporters here.
Annual growth rate recorded by private ports was only 4 per cent, he said, adding the performance of major ports was steadily improving on the back of a number of initiatives taken by the government to enhance their efficiency.

"Kandla Port retained its top position among all major ports and handled 105.44 MT followed by Paradip Port which handled 88.95 MT and Mumbai Port that handled 63.05 MT," Gadkari said.
JNPT recorded highest ever handling of 4.5 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) during 2016-17 while port-owned terminal JNPCT achieved highest ever handling of 1.53 million TEUs during 2016-17, registering a growth rate of 7.33 per cent.
Among commodities handled, iron ore traffic picked up again, attaining the highest growth rate of 163.67 per cent while other miscellaneous and general cargo grew by 18.53 per cent and petroleum, oil, lubricants (POL) products by 8.16 per cent.

The minister said efficiency indicators in major ports are steadily improving and during the last fiscal, total turnaround time came down to 3.44 days as against 3.64 days during the last year.

Likewise, average output per ship berth day has gone up to 14,583 tonnes as against 13,748 tonnes during the last year.
Major ports have been benchmarked to international standards, he said, adding that 70 initiatives have been implemented and the remaining will be done by 2019.
This has resulted in unlocking 80 million tonne per annum capacity.
India has 12 major ports -- Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.