Shipping & Ports Industry Events
Invest Port Summit Vasan invites private companies to build port infrastructure Despite India has a huge coastline of 7,517 km, strategic location on the global shipping routes, long tradition of seafaring and rapidly globalising economy, the country is still lagging behind with respect to maritime trade. Recently, CII organised a conclave on port investment opportunity in India with an objective to facilitate the trade. CT Bureau
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he maritime sector plays a crucial role in facilitating India’s international trade. Almost 95 per cent by volume and 70 per cent by value of India’s global merchandise trade is effected through the sea route. In spite of economic compulsions and global slowdown, the contribution of India’s external trade, as a proportion of GDP is close to 40 per cent. Bulk of this international trade is carried through shipping. “Therefore, one can imagine the importance of the ports and maritime sector,” said, GK Vasan, minister of shipping, Government of India, while inauguration the ‘Invest Port’ summit. He also stated that to achieve keep the pace of India’s growth, it is necessary to follow a strategy for holistic development of the country’s ports. It includes harmonisation 50 CARGOTALK MARCH 2012
of berth side development (including installation of cargo handling equipment) with marine side development (including enhancement in channel depths, where necessary). Optimum utilisation of the port facilities are required to be achieved through improvement in road and rail connectivity infrastructure to ensure seamless passage of cargo both to and from the port through the hinterland. He underlined the importance of the Maritime Agenda 2020, a perspective plan prepared by the Shipping Ministry for this decade. The objectives of the agenda include creation of port capacity of around 3,200 million MT to handle the expected traffic of about 2,500 million MT by 2020. He also added that while the government has been paying utmost attention to the development the infrastructure with much higher investments in the past few years. However, the massive investment requirements in this sector cannot be
met by the government alone. “Private sector has to play a greater role in developing the infrastructure in the country in the coming years through Public Private Partnerships,” he said. Presently, the growth in traffic has resulted in the major ports having a capacity utilisation of more than 90 per cent with some ports experiencing nearly 100 per cent capacity utilisation. This kind of capacity utilisation indicates congestion and very high berth occupancy. For efficient port operations, 70 per cent capacity utilisation is considered to be optimum. The traffic at major ports is likely to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of about 8 per cent from 561 million tonne in 200910 to 1,215 million tonne by 2019-20, whereas the traffic at non-major ports is expected to grow at a growth rate of 16 per cent from the present level of 289 million tonne to 1,270 million tonne. WWW.CARGOTALK.IN