Out of all the 12 major government owned ports, Mormugao Port led by players like Vedanta, JSW and Gautam Adani-led APSEZ in Goa, recorded the highest cargo traffic of 60.47 per cent, hence contributing maximum to the rise of maritime trade in India.
Covid-19 pandemic has been a major reason for the setback of cargo, managed by all the major Indian ports, with its traffic reaching down to 51.68 million tonnes in August in the last fiscal. However, 12 major Indian ports in charge of these cargo movements have been successfully able to reverse the track by nearly reaching the level experienced before the onset of Covid pandemic. Data collected by the Indian Ports Association (IPA) suggests an 11.43 per cent rise to 57.59 million tonnes in August, hence maintaining a justifiable balance of 347 million tonnes of cargo traffic from April-September 2021, which is just a marginal decline of 0.17 per cent from the previously recorded 348.2 per cent during the same period in 2019.
Cargo traffic in the initial half of 2020 was severely disrupted owing to the Covid pandemic restrictions, but the second half went opposite because of the huge involvement of major ports like, Mormugao Port, Mumbai Port, Paradip Port and many others. Out of all the 12 major government owned ports, Mormugao Port led by players like Vedanta, JSW, Gautam Adani-led APSEZ in Goa, recorded the highest cargo traffic of 60.47 per cent, hence contributing maximum to the rise of maritime trade in India, followed by Kamarajar Port in Chennai with 53.73 per cent, JNPT with 27.03 per cent and Cochin Port with 21.84 per cent.
Going ahead with the contributions, Adani Ports also received the approval of Competition Commission of India (CII) for acquisition of a 10.4 per cent equity stake of Rs. 644.78 crores of the Gangavaram Port (GPL) in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. This is recorded to be the second largest deep water port in Andhra Pradesh having a capacity of 64 MMT.
Maritime transport accounts for around 70 per cent of India’s trade. The active participation of the leading ports like Gautam Adani’s Goa port, Paradip Port, Kolkata Port, Deendayal Port etc., has increased the overall capacity by over 76 per cent to reach 1,534.91 MTPA in March 2020 from 871.52 MTPA in March 2014. While witnessing contribution shift in paradigm, cargo traffic is expected to rise to 2,500 MT by 2024-25 from 1,072.23 MT in 2015-16.
