The handling (offloading) capacity of the Major Ports in the country is sufficient to match with the trade demands, according to Press Information Bureau, Government of India.
The capacity of all Major Ports as on 31.03.2013 was 744.91 million metric tonnes (MMT) against the traffic of 545.79 MMT handled in 2012-13. The capacity utilization is around 72%. As per the internationally accepted norms the gap between the traffic and the capacity should be around 30%.
The government has chalked out various projects to be taken during 12th Five Year Plan period for the development and capacity addition at Major Ports.
They are regularly monitoring the projects of capacity enhancement like construction & modernisation of berths, installation of state of art equipment & mechanization of cargo handling system at ports including the dredging projects to accommodate large vessels at major ports. The present status of the capacity augmentation projects is given in Annexure.
This information was given by the Minister of Shipping Shri G.K. Vasan in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
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Press Release, August 12, 2013