NEW DELHI: The cargo-handling capacity at Indian ports has risen from 871.52 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in 2014-15 to 1629.86 MTPA in 2023-24.
Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said the capacity increased by 87 per cent in the last nine years, with Tamil Nadu’s Kamarajar Port registering a whopping swell of 154 per cent. Three other ports saw load capacity of over 100 per cent.
India is a maritime nation with a 7,517-km coastline Ninety-five per cent of trade by volume and 70 per cent by value is done through maritime transport. Eighty per cent of its energy (oil & gas) comes by sea. India has 12 major and 205 minor and intermediate ports with 1,629.96 MTPA capacity.
Sonowal also said under the National Perspective Plan of the Sagarmala Programme, fourteen Coastal Economic Zones were envisaged mainly for port-led industrialisation.