Bhubaneswar: The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 4.58 per cent and together handled 560.97 million tonnes of cargo from April 2017 to January 2018 as against 536.41 million tonnes handled during the corresponding period of the previous year.
For the period from April 2017 to January 2018, eight ports – Kolkata including Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, JNPT and Deendayal – have registered positive growth in traffic.
The highest growth was registered by Cochin Port at 18.36 percent, while Paradip posted a growth of 16.01 per cent. It was followed by Kolkata (incl. Haldia 13.47%), New Mangalore (7.37%) and JNPT (5.95%).
The main reasons for growth in Cochin Port were the increase in traffic of POL (24.54 per cent), containers (11.45 per cent) and other misc. cargo (1.02 per cent).
In Kolkata port, the overall growth was at 13.47 per cent. Kolkata Dock System (KDS) registered traffic growth of 1.12%. Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) registered positive growth of 19.63 per cent which is the highest among all major ports.
During the period April 2017 to January 2018, Deendayal (Kandla) Port handled the highest volume of traffic i.e. 90.99 Million tonnes (16.22 per cent share), followed by Paradip with 84.57 million tonnes (15.08 per cent share).
The share of JNPT was 54.52 million tonnes (9.72 per cent share), Mumbai (52.71 million tones, 9.40 per cent share), and Visakhapatnam (52.44 million tones, 9.35 per cent share. Together, these five ports handled around 60 per cent of major port traffic.
The commodity-wise percentage share of POL was maximum i.e. 33.74 per cent, followed by container (19.70 per cent), thermal & steam coal (13.72 per cnet), other misc. cargo (12.09 per cent), coking & other coal (7.60 per cent), iron ore & pellets (6.72 per cent), other liquid (4.15 per cent), finished fertilizer (1.17 per cent) and FRM (1.11 per cent), according to government’s data. (PNN)