Blue Economy is a catalyst in India’s progress: Gadkari

Panjim (Goa): The Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari reviewed the work of all ports in Goa this week.  He interacted with stakeholders including PPP operators, port users and other private sector service providers. In his address Gadkari said that as per the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Blue Economy is proving to be a catalyst in India’s progress and the performance of ports is a clear pointer towards the same.The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 3.27% during the period April to September, 2017 and together handled 383 Million Tonnes of cargo as against 371 Million Tonnes handled during the corresponding period of previous year.The Eight Ports i.e. Kolkata, Paradip, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mumbai, JNPT and Kandla registered positive growth in traffic during the period April to October, 2017.The highest growth was registered by Cochin Port (17.66%), followed by Kolkata including Haldia, New Mangalore, Paradip with growth of about 12%. The Cochin Port growth was mainly due to increase in traffic of POL (24.56%) and Containers (11.12%). In Kolkata Port, overall growth was positive i.e. 12.39%. Kolkata Dock System (KDS) registered traffic growth of 3.80%. Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) registered positive growth of 16.66%.During the period April to September 2017, Kandla Port handled the highest volume of traffic i.e. 63.13 Million tonnes (16.49% share), followed by Paradip with 55.78 Million Tonnes (14.57% share), JNPT with 37.90 Million Tonnes (9.90% share), Mumbai with 36.72 Million Tonnes (9.59% share), and Visakhapatnam with 35.74 Million Tonnes (9.33% share). Together, these five ports handled around 60% of Major Port Traffic.Commodity-wise percentage share of POL was maximum i.e. 34.07%, followed by Container (20.01%), Thermal & Steam Coal (12.81%), Other Misc. Cargo (12.24%), Coking & Other Coal (7.57%), Iron Ore & Pellets (6.61%), Other Liquid (4.30%), Finished Fertilizer (1.29%) and FRM (1.10%).