India's major ports handled highest ever cargo at 795 million tonne in FY23

India's major ports handled the highest ever cargo at 795 million tonne in 2022-23, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Secretary Sudhansh Pant said on Friday.

Pant further said that with transactions worth about Rs 5,000 crore, the shipping ministry has surpassed its FY23 asset monetisation target of about Rs 3,700 crore.

He also said that next week, Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will launch 'Green Port' guidelines to make India's ports green.

"Our major ports have handled the highest ever cargo in the history of the ports at 795 million metric tonne. This is 10 per cent higher than the previous year's cargo handled," he told PTI.

India has 12 major ports -- Deendayal (Kandla), Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore (Kamarajar), Tuticorin (V O Chidambaranar), Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

"Four or five of the major ports, including Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (Kolkata), Deendayal (Kandla), Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Paradip have recorded the highest ever cargo," Pant added.

He also pointed out that after many many years, the major ports have recorded a higher annual growth than that of non-major ports.

Non-major ports are administered by state governments. Many state governments have given such ports on lease to private partners.

"So, this year (2022-23), major ports achieved an overall growth of 10.4 per cent, while non-major ports achieved a growth 1.5 to 2 per cent less than this," he said.

While the share of major ports in the total cargo was 54 per cent and non-major ports was 46 per cent in FY22, Pant said in FY23, the share of major ports rose to 55 per cent and that of non-major ports fell to 45 per cent.

"So even 1 per cent shift is a very significant achievement for major ports, because despite so many challenges, they have increased their share by 1 per cent ," he said.

Pant also said the inland waterways increased their cargo handling by 16 per cent to 126 million tonne in 2022-23 from 109 million tonne in 2021-22.

He said the turnaround time in major ports has reduced by 3-4 hours to 48-49 hours.