India is expanding its aggregate port handling capacity by more than six times to touch 10 billion mt per year by 2047, marking the country largest-ever growth in maritime infrastructure, minister of ports, shipping and waterways, Sarbanand Sonowal, said in a statement on Friday, January 24.
“The major ports are already handling 820 million mt per year of cargo annually, representing a 47 percent increase since 2014, while overall port capacity has doubled to 1.63 billion mt per year during the same period,” he said.
The minister said that the government is developing two strategic mega-ports: the Vadhavan Port in Maharashtra, which is set to become India's largest container facility, and the International Container Transshipment Port at Galathea Bay in Great Nicobar, aimed at capturing trans-shipment routes along key global routes.
“Container dwell time has been reduced to three days, while vessel turnaround time has improved to 0.9 days, surpassing several advanced economies. Nine Indian ports now feature in the World Bank's Container Port Performance Index 2023, with Visakhapatnam ranking among the top 20 globally,” the minister said.