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

Sonowal will launch 'Green Port' guidelines to make India's ports green: Pant

Pant 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 percent higher than the previous year's cargo handled," he added. 

4 or 5 major ports have recorded highest-ever cargo: Pant

"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 years, the major ports have recorded higher annual growth than non-major ports.

'Major ports achieved an overall growth of 10.4%'

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 percent, while non-major ports achieved a growth 1.5 to 2 percent less than this," he said.

'Share of major ports rose to 55%'

While the share of major ports in the total cargo was 54 percent and non-major ports was 46 percent in FY22, Pant said in FY23, the share of major ports rose to 55 percent and that of non-major ports fell to 45 percent.
"So, even one percent shift is a very significant achievement for major ports, because, despite so many challenges, they have increased their share by one percent," he said.

Pant also said that the inland waterways increased their cargo handling by 16 percent to 126 million tonne in 2022-23 from 109 million tonne in 2021-22. He said that the turnaround time in major ports has been reduced by 3-4 hours to 48-49 hours.

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