Marking an increase in the cargo handling capacity of major ports, the cargo volume handled by the 12 major ports rose to 413.747 million metric tonne (MMT) in September, according to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. The traffic handled during the month increased by 5.03 per cent in the current financial year as compared to the same period last year.
In its monthly summary for September 2024, the Ministry stated that the transportation of cargo on national waterways has reached 56.57 MMT for the period April to August 2024, registering 4.54 per cent growth over the same period of the previous financial year. As per the Ministry, 3,39,768.74 MT of cargo moved on the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route using inland water transit and trade routes and national waterways-1.
The Ministry also highlighted that the 20th Maritime States Development Council (MSDC) meeting was held last month where over 100 issues from various states were deliberated and successfully resolved. In addition, the meeting discussed the implementation of a state ranking framework and a port ranking system to foster healthy competition and drive performance improvements across India's maritime sector.
During FY 2024-25, approximately Rs 265 crore has been released (till 30 September 2024) under the Sagarmala scheme for the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Odisha, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, as per the Ministry.
The Ministry pointed out that the capital expenditure of major ports under IEBR upto September 2024 is Rs 1976.91 crore, which is an improvement over the same period last year which was Rs 1091.39 crore.