FM likely to announce 4 major ports in Budget

These ports would be at Maharashtra's Dahanu & Dugarajapatnam, Tamil Nadu's Colachel and West Bengal's Sagar

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to propose four new major ports to be constructed, in the Budget for 2016-17. These ports would be at Dahanu (Maharashtra), Colachel (Tamil Nadu), Sagar (West Bengal) and Dugarajapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) at an estimated cost of Rs 32,000 crore, sources said.

Spanning 13 maritime states and Union territories, India's 7,516.6-km coastline is serviced by 12 major ports, and 200 notified minor and intermediate ports. The 12 major ports are Chennai, Cochin, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Kamarajar, Kandla, Kolkata and Haldia, Mormugao, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Paradip, V O Chidambaranar, and Vishakhapatnam. In 2014-15, these ports handled 581.33 million tonnes (mt) of traffic.
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A study by Mckinsey and Aecom for the shipping ministry underlined the need of building coastal capacities to meet future cargo volume. The study notes Indian ports handled 857 mt of bulk cargo in 2013-14. It estimates that in 2025, bulk traffic will increase to 1,850 mt a year. Exim bulk will rise four per cent to reach 1,000 mt a year. The growth in export-import cargo will remain muted due to increase in production of coal and continued weak global demand for iron ore. The coastal bulk traffic, however, will grow at the rate of 22 per cent to reach 750 mt by 2025. This would require building dedicated coastal capacities at specific ports.

The study also states that Indian ports handled 10.7 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) container traffic in 2013-14. Container traffic has grown at eight per cent over the past decade as the level of containerisation also increased from 60 per cent in 2004-5 to 67 per cent in 2013-14. The study estimates that container traffic will grow at 6.5 per cent rate under 'business-as-usual' and reach 21.5 million TEU by 2025. With programmes such as 'Make in India' and development of industrial corridor, the estimated traffic can grow to 24-25 million TEU.

Currently, the handling capacity of major ports in India is sufficient to match trade demand. The capacity of all the major ports as on March 31, 2015 was 871.52 mt, compared with 581.33 mt in cargo traffic handled through 2014-15. The government has taken several measures to improve operational efficiency through mechanisation, deepening the draft and speedy evacuations.

In these ports, capacity increased by 71 mt, traffic grew 4.6 per cent, average turn-around time on port account improved to 2.13 days and operating ratio to 67.2 per cent in 2014-15.