Ports in India

India has a long coastline spanning 7600 kilometres forming one of the biggest peninsulas in the world. It is serviced by 12 major ports and 185 notified minor and intermediate portsFact|date=June 2008.

Major ports handled over 80% Fact|date=June 2008 of all cargo traffic in 2007. However, the words "major", "intermediate" and "minor", do not have a strict association with the traffic volumes served by these ports. As an example, Mundra Port, a newly developed minor port in the state of Gujarat registered a cargo traffic of around 28.8 million tonnes per annum during the financial year of 2008, which is higher than that of many major ports Fact|date=June 2008.

The classification of Indian ports into major, minor and intermediate has an administrative significance. Indian government has a federal structure, and according to its constitution, maritime transport falls under the "concurrent list", to be administered by both the Central and the State governments. While the Central Shipping Ministry administer the major ports, the minor and intermediate ports are administered by the relevant departments or ministries in the nine coastal states of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Several of these 185 minor and intermediate ports are merely "notified", with little or no cargo handling actually taking place. These ports have been identified by the respective governments to be developed, in a phased manner, a good proportion of them involving Public-private partnership.

Major ports

There are also 7 shipyards under the control of the central government of India, 2 shipyards controlled by state governments, and 19 privately owned shipyards. The major ports handled 423.4 million tons of cargo for the financial year 2005-2006, with Vishakhapatnam, Cochin ,Kolkata Port, Chennai Port and Kandla carrying the greatest tonnage. Major ports can collectively handle 400+ million tons of cargo annually, and port operations have improved since the mid-1990s. All major ports, except one (Ennore Port), are government administered, but private-sector participation in ports has increased.

Handling

The following table gives the detailed data about the major ports of India for the financial year 2005-06 and percentage growth over 2004-05 "(Source: [http://www.ipa.nic.in/oper.htm Indian Ports Association)] ":

Recent developments

In 2000 there were 102 shipping companies operating in India, of which five were privately owned and based in India and one was owned by the government (Shipping Corporation of India). In 2000 there were 639 government-owned ships, including 91 oil tankers, 79 dry cargo bulk carriers, and 10 cellular container vessels. Indian-flagged vessels carried about 15 percent of overseas cargo at Indian ports for financial year 2003.

References

*cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/India.pdf|work=Library of Congress Country Studies (All works are issued in Public domain|accessdate=2007-11-06|title=Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: India, December 2004)

External links

* [http://www.imaritime.com/backoffice/published_files/India_Port_Report_Numbered.pdf India Port Report]