The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai port set to regain past glory

Mumbai port is set to regain its past glory, as the current fiscal will see its traffic volume scale new heights. Viewed from another perspective, this can be seen as yet another reflection of India's economic growth story, economists feel.

Mumbai port, which was once India's premier port in terms of cargo throughput, has handled a throughput of 40.17 million tonnes (mt) in the first eleven months of the current fiscal, as against a total traffic of 35.19 mt last fiscal. Port authorities feel that the throughput by the close of the fiscal could surpass the 43-mt mark.

The major drivers of the port's growth have been the increase in import of petroleum products, coal and over-dimensional project equipment that go into setting up greenfield industrial units or expanding existing units, apart from the surge in car exports by Indian car manufacturers. In fact, Mumbai port is the only port on the west coast that can handle such cargoes of massive dimensions.

Comeback strategy

After touching a peak of 35.05 mt in 1995-96, when it emerged as India's leading port in terms of throughput, the

port's traffic began to slump, touching its nadir of 26.4 mt in 2001-02. Putting in place a sound comeback strategy, that included taking over of stevedoring operations, the Mumbai port began to regain the traffic it had lost.

The port could attract traffic of 29.9 mt in 2003-04, which shot up to 35.19 mt in 2004-05.

"Last fiscal, we improved to the fifth position and this fiscal we will come to the fourth slot by handling a traffic in the neighbourhood of 43 mt," a senior port official told Business Line. Port analysts feel that after it took over stevedoring operations from private companies, the port could significantly bring down terminal handling charges, which in turn re-attracted cargoes from different parts of this region.

What helped Mumbai port shore up its cargo volumes was the increased import of crude and petroleum products in the wake of increased refinery operations to help India have a strong buffer stock.

The port has handled 25.27 mt of POL products till now, as against 19.4 mt handled in the whole of last fiscal.

Also, increased car exports by India saw the port's passenger car traffic move up from 40,000 cars last year to about 70,000 units in the current fiscal.

Steel cargo also saw a marginal increase from 3.42 mt last fiscal to over 4 mt so far this financial year, while miscellaneous cargoes such as coal and project equipment grew from 0.9 mt to 2.7 mt.