The Hindu Business Line : Major ports register 10.3 pc growth in cargo in 2005-06

In 2005-06, all major ports together handled 423.41 million tonnes of cargo traffic as compared with 383.75 mt in 2004-05, thus posting 10.3 per cent growth.

During the year, the Visakhapatnam port might have emerged as the highest cargo handling port (in volume terms), but in terms of rate of growth of traffic, the Mumbai port topped the list of all major ports in the country.

The Mumbai port handled a total of 44 mt in 2005-06 as compared with 35 mt in 2004-05, up by an estimated 9 mt thus posting around 25 per cent growth.

In terms of growth, the second position was shared by both Kolkata (including Haldia) and the Jawaharlal Nehru port - 15 per cent each. Kolkata handled 53 mt (46.2 mt) and the JNPT 37.75 mt (32.8 mt). With an additional traffic of five million tonnes at 55.8 mt (50.15 mt), the Visakhapatnam port posted 11 per cent growth and thus ranked third.

In volume terms, for the second year in succession, the Kolkata port ranked second, the Chennai port third, the Kandla port fourth and Mumbai fifth. But Chennai with a throughput of 47.2 mt (43.8 mt) posted 7.86 per cent growth, less than the national average while the Kandla port with 45.9 mt (41.5 mt) posted 10.4 per cent growth. The Paradip port too posted 10 per cent growth at 33.1 mt (30.1 mt).

The Mormagao port added to its throughput by one million tonnes to reach 31.6 mt (30.6 mt), the New Mangalore port by 0.5 mt at 34.4 mt (33.89 mt) and the Tuticorin port by 1.3 mt at 17.1 mt ( 15.8 mt)

The two ports which posted negative growth, marginally though, during 2005-06 were Kochi 13.9 (14 mt) and Ennore 9.1 mt (9.4 mt) It might be interesting to note that in past four years (2001-02 to 2005-06) the Kolkata port posted highest growth of around 75 per cent. In 2001-02, the port handled 30.4 mt, increased to 53 mt in 2005-06, thus adding to traffic throughput by more than 22 mt in four years.

During the period, Mumbai and New Mangalore ports each posted more than 60 per cent growth while the Visakhapatnam port 25.8 per cent growth.