Ports and Shipping

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Summary

India comprises a significant size maritime sector with 12 Major and 200+ Non-Major Ports situated along its 7500 km long coastline and a vast network of navigable waterways. *
The total cargo handling capacity of Indian ports is about 2400 mn tonnes per annum (MTPA). *
Ports in India handle approximately 95% (by volume) and 68% (by value) of India’s external trade. *
India is one of the world's top 5 ship recycling countries and holds a 30% share in the global ship recycling market.
India ranks 18th in the World’s Shipping Tonnage. *
India has 12 Major ports and about 200 non major ports. *
Under Maritime India Summit 2021, 486 MoUs were signed for Maritime India Summit 2021 by 22 Maritime Ports/Agencies/Authorities for USD 47.02 bn across different subsectors. *
India has become the fourth country in the world to have its independent Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).*
India has a merchant fleet of 1491 seagoing ships with total capacity of 13 Mn GT.

Reasons to Invest

The Ministry of Shipping strives to increase the overall port capacity to 3300+ mn tonnes per annum (MTPA) to cater to projected traffic of 2500 MTPA by 2025.*
GOI aims to increase the Cargo capacity at the ports from 1282 MMTPA in 2020 to 1759 MMTPA by 2024-25 and cargo movement on all national waterways from 74 mn MT in 2020 to 95 mn MT by 2024-25 *
GOI aims to establish MMLPs and develop river ports in various part of Assam to leverage India's connectivity with Bangladesh and to reach markets of the world. *
Under Project Unnati 116 new initiatives to improve the efficiency and productivity of the major ports were identified of which 95 have been completed. *
India is strategically located on the world’s shipping routes with a long coastline of about 7,517 km and over 200 major and minor ports, he said “these ports play an important role in India’s economy.” *
JNPT has utilized modern technology to provide facilities for reducing turn-around time of loading and unloading to 26 hours. GOI aims to make JNPT a mega port in near future. *
Ship Acquisition, Financing And Leasing (SAFAL) regime at India-IFSC is introduced that includes financial models to gauge the gap in costs, including capital and operating costs and tax costs of doing this business in IFSC and hubs. *
GOI aims for expediting various projects in Kolkata for the benefits of stakeholders, trade and commerce community, and people of the State at large. These include Feasibility of Seaplane project in West Bengal, Development of Passenger Jetties, Development of Ro-Ro and Cargo Trasportation on the Icchamoti River and Development of Ship/Barge repair facilities in NW–I area of West Bengal. *
Model Concession Agreement (MCA) - 2021 for PPP projects at Major Ports is revised and is applicable to all the future PPP projects at major ports, as well as projects which are already approved by the Government but are still under bidding stage. *
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has awarded 31 projects of more than INR 14,600 crore on PPP till FY25 and look forward for an enthusiastic response from the stakeholders. *
Construction of Pandu Ship Repair Facility to start from May 2022 to be completed in two years. *
As part of Maritime India Vision 2030, a Total of 963 initiatives have been identified for implementation across major ports with an estimated investment of INR 6,77,720.24 crores. *
The percentage of cargo handled at all Major Ports through PPP operators is targeted to be 85% by year 2030.*
By 2030, all the Major Ports are to be made fully self-sustainable on electricity. *
MIV 2030 estimates the investments to the tune of INR 1,00,000–1,25,000 Crores for capacity augmentation and development of world-class infrastructure at Indian Ports.*
National Centre of Excellence for Green Port & Shipping (NCoEGPS) aims to provide support to MoPSW in developing and maintaining a policy and regulatory framework for a green alternative technologies road map for the shipping sector in India for its transition to carbon neutrality and CE principles.*
Vision 2047: Port handling capacity to be raised by 4X.*

Explore more about infrastructure availability in the Ports and Shipping sector >

Key Achievements

Under the Sagarmala Programme, 143 projects were completed, while 190 projects worth INR 2.12 lakh cr have been awarded and are under implementation. * Eight Floating Jetty projects, 4 each in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Sanctioned under Sagarmala Programme. *
Quality service delivery Turnaround Time (containers) at Ports comes down to 26.58 hours from 44.70 hours in 2013-14.
The major Indian ports under Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Government of India registered an impressive growth rate in traffic movement at 6.94% during FY2021-22 over the previous fiscal year (Y-o-Y). *
The Ministry of Shipping in order to make the process transparent and participatory issued the draft of Coastal Shipping Bill, 2020. This wil integral part of the transport chain and recognizes the policy priorities of the sector to meet the demands of the Indian shipping industry. *
MoU between IWAI and the Government of Assam for “Operation and Management of 4 Ro-Pax Vessels on 22.10.2020. All four vessels have been handed over to the Government of Assam in terms of MoU approved by the Ministry of Shipping. *
Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata has handled 9.090 mn tonnes (MT) of cargo during April-May 2021, vis-à-vis 7.438 MT during April-May2020, registering a growth of 22.21%.*
The Cabinet has approved the project Deepening and Optimizing of Inner Harbour Facilities of Western Dock at Paradip Port under PPP mode with a total estimated cost of INR 3,004.63 cr. *
Department of Commerce issued an enlistment for the addition of Hazira Port as the import of scrap port and no exception would be allowed even in case of EOUs, SEZs. *
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust - JNPT, one of the premier container handling ports, recorded 433,533TEUs (Twenty-Feet Equivalent Units) in July 2021, a growth of 21.15%. *
GOI has approved development of 75 lighthouses for tourism as a part of the 75th AKAM. 11 other Lighthouses in Kerala have been earmarked for development of Tourism. *
The Multi-Modal Terminal at Sahibganj has been constructed at the cost of INR 280.90 crore under Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). The capacity of the MMT Sahibganj is 3.03 Mn Metric Tones Per Annum. *
Direct Port Delivery (DPD) has increased from 39.15% in FY2018 to 62.48% in FY2021. There is 64.66 % Increase in container traffic at Indian ports in 2020-21 as compared to 2014-15 with further expectation of its increasing by about 2.5 times by 2030’.*
Under the National Perspective Plan of the Sagarmala Programme, fourteen Coastal Economic Zones (CEZ) were envisaged including three in the state of Tamil Nadu.*
A total of 157 road connectivity projects and 137 rail connectivity projects are being undertaken for promoting multimodal connectivity at Ports. *
Foundation Stone laid for construction of two Floating Jetties at Bogibeel & Guijan by Inland Waterways Authority of India.*
Seaborne trade in India has grown at twice the global growth rate of 3.3%.*
Jawaharlal Nehru Port becomes first 100% Landlord Major Port.*

Recent Announcements: 16th March 2023: Tuticorin V.O.Chidambaranar Port Authority records YoY growth of 11.35% handling over 36 mn tonnes of cargo surpassing FY 2022-23 target

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6th March 2023: 7 floating jetty projects worth INR 611 cr sanctioned under Sagarmala Programme to boost tourism.

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2nd March 2023: Paradip Port handles 116 MMT of cargo in FY 2022-23 so far, exhibiting positive growth of 17.5%.

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22nd February 2023: Ministry for Ports, Shipping and Waterways intends to increase the share of renewable energy to 60% of its total energy consumption: Shri Sarbananda Sonowal

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17th February 2023: SMP Kolkata handled an all-time highest record Cargo Traffic of 54.254 MT during April 2022 - January 2023 compared 47.282 MT handled during April, 2021 - January, 2022, registering growth of 14.75%.

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Statistics

India is the 16^th largest maritime country in the world, with a coastline measuring more than 7500 km. *
Approximately 95% of the country’s trade by volume and 68% by value is moved through Maritime Transport.
Total traffic handled at Major Ports in 2020-21 was 672.68 Mn Tonnes. *
During the period of Apr-Oct 2021 Major Ports handled total traffic of around 406.9 mn tonnes as compared to 355.16 mn tonnes handled for same period last in 2020, thus incrasing the traffic by 14.59%. *
As on March-2022, the capacity of Major Ports of India is 1598 MTPA, whereas the Major Ports have handled 720 MT traffic during the financial year 2021-22.*
During 2020-21, non-major ports in India handled a total cargo throughput of around 580 MT, taking the total cargo handled by all Indian ports to over 1,250 MT.*
The overall installed capacity of the major ports in India has increased over 76% to reach 1,561 MTPA in Mar 2021, vis-a-vis 872 MTPA in March 2014.*
There are more than 80 PPP/landlord projects in the sector with investment of over INR 56,000 crore at various stages. Of these, 53 projects of INR 40,000 crore are under operation, whereas 27 projects of more than INR 16,000 crore are at implementation stage. *
The cargo handling capacity during 2020-21 at Major Ports was 1560.61 MTPA and for Non-Major Ports, it was 1002.24 MTPA. The total Capacity of all the Indian Ports as on 31-3-2021 was 2562.85 MTPA. *
There are 63 Projects worth more than INR 17,000 Cr. identified under Sagarmala Programme in the state of Kerala for enhancing the infrastructure related to Port led Industrialization, Port Modernization, Port Connectivity enhancement, Coastal Community Development & Coastal Shipping, and Inland Waterways. *
Coastal shipping traffic grows from 74.9 MMTA in 2014 to 133 MMTPA in 2022.*

Growth Drivers

Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030 aims for investments around INR 1,00,000–1,25,000 cr for development of world-class global standard ports. *
MOPSW had identified 101 projects estimated to cost around INR 62,627 crore under GatiShakti NMP which are aimed to be completed by 2024, while the target for the nine high-impact projects costing INR 1,913 crore is by the end of this fiscal year.*
Tripartite MoU signed for swift development of modern Multi Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) under Bharatmala Pariyojna.*
The Mumbai International Cruise Terminal, the iconic sea cruise terminal coming up at BPX-Indira Dock, is expected to be commissioned by July 2024. The terminal will have a capacity of handling 200 ships and 1 million passengers per annum. *
INR 96.00 crore has been sanctioned for development of the stretch between Vijayawada to Muktayala in Krishna River of NW-4 in Andhra Pradesh for Establishment of four Floating Pontoons, Dredging as per requirement, Land acquisition for construction of 3 ﬁxed Ro-Ro terminals at Muktayala, Harichandrapuram and lbrahimpatnam. *
In order to promote Inland Water Transport (IWT) in the country, 111 waterways (including 5 existing and 106 new) have been declared as National Waterways (NWs) under the National Waterways Act, 2016. *
The Government has initiated action for development of tourism at the five Light houses in the state of Odisha on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode:- Gopalpur Lighthouse – District Ganjam; Puri Lighthouse – District Puri; Chandrabhaga Lighthouse – District Puri; Paradip Lighthouse – District Jagatsinghpur; False Point Lighthouse – District Kendrapara. *
A Report titled S.A.F.A.L. (Ship Acquisition, Financing and Leasing) to IFSCA presented the critical and necessary changes required to bring the greenfield venture to India IFSC. *
GOI aims to integrate National Logistics Portal (NLP) with Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) to make the Multi Modal Logistics Ecosystem more Efficient. *
24 Digital Systems of 6 Ministries are being integrated through ULIP. This will create a National Single Window Logistics Portal to provide real time monitoring of cargo while ensuring data confidentiality with end-to-end encryption, comprehensive reduction in logistics cost. *
Government sanctioned following projects for development of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) infrastructure on National Waterways in the North-Eastern Region (NER) for a period of 5 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 *
(i) NW-2 (Dhubri-Sadiya stretch of river Brahmaputra) at the cost of INR 461 Crore; and
(ii) NW-16 (river Barak) & Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route at the cost of INR 145 Crore.
Cochin Shipyard Limited has committed to invest an initial corpus of INR 50 Crore in Start-up companies engaged in the maritime sector. *
IWAI and Adventure Resorts and Cruises sign MOU for Development of Long Cruise on Kerela Backwaters (NW-3). *
Cabinet approves grant of moratorium to Cochin Port Authority on repayment of GoI loans for a period of three years.*
The State Government of Kerala in association with Private Investor and partial financial support from the Ministry of Finance (GOI) is developing a Transshipment project at Vizhinjam in Kerala.*
Government with the aim of creating India a transshipment hub is developing Galathea Bay at Great Nicobar Islands and Cochin Port into Transshipment facility.*
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways has identified 81 Public Private Partnership (PPP) Projects (value INR 42,300 Crore) till financial year 2024-25 for developing major ports’ berths, terminals, oil jetties, etc. *
MoPSW has already identified a project pipeline up to FY 2025 with 13 projects, for FY 2022 (INR 6954 Crores) already approved by the MoPSW followed by 24 projects of value ~INR 12,550 targeted for award in FY 2023. Further, 44 projects of value ~INR 23,000 crore are scheduled for award in FY 2024 and FY 2025.*
567 projects identified under Sagarmala Programme for Holistic Development of Coastal Districts with an estimated cost of INR 59,000 cr.*
The jetty will enhance the liquid handling capacity, by 2.00 MMTPA, of mainly edible oil, and fulfil the future requirements and will reduced the Turn-around time of the vessels.*
Clear and robust pipeline of 81 projects of more than INR 42,400 crore to be awarded on PPP till FY25.*

FDI Policy

The Government of India allows 100% FDI under the automatic route for port development projects. *
The cumulative FDI equity inflow in the Port industry is USD 1.63 bn during the period April 2000 to December 2022. *
The cumulative FDI equity inflow in the Sea Transport is USD 5.31 bn during the period April 2000 to December 2022. *

Sector Policy

Sagarmala Programme *

Sagarmala Programme aims to change India’s logistics sector performance, by unlocking the full potential of India’s coastline and waterways. Various projects have been initiated under the Sagarmala project:
- Port Modernization
- Connectivity enhancement
- Port led Industrialization
- Coastal Community Development
The Sagarmala Project has the following aims:
- Reduce logistic cost for export import (EXIM) and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment
- Optimise cost of EXIM container movement
- Lower the logistics cost of bulk commodities by locating future industrial capacities near the cost
- Improve export competitiveness by developing port proximate discrete manufacturing clusters
- Reduce the cost of transporting domestic cargo by optimising the modal mix
As a part of Sagarmala Programme, more than 800 projects at an estimated cost of around 5.5 lakh crore have been identified for implementation during 2015 to 2035 across all coastal states an Eastern and Western side of the country.*
Ministry has sanctioned financial assistance of INR 27 cr and released INR 6.14 cr towards balance payment of the second instalment to Chennai Port Trust for Development of Paved Storage for handling export cargo. *
More than 504 projects have been identified to unlock the opportunities for port-led development and these initiatives are expected to mobilize more than 3.57 lakh crore of infrastructure investment.
The Sagarmala scheme encompasses projects worth INR 5.48 lakh crores, out of which 194 projects worth INR 99,000 crores have been completed and 217 projects worth INR 2.12 lakh crores are under implementation as on 31st March 2022.
About 119 Projects worth more than INR 1 Lac Cr. have been identified under Sagarmala Programme in the state of Andhra Pradesh for enhancing the infrastructure related to Port led Industrialization, Port Modernization, Port Connectivity Enhancement, Coastal Community Development & Coastal Shipping and Inland Waterways.
131 projects worth INR 1.05 lakh crore identified under Sagarmala in Maharashtra State and out of which 33 projects are completed.

Coastal Berth Scheme *

The scheme aims to provide financial support to ports/state governments for the creation of infrastructure for the movement of cargo/passenger by sea or National Waterways. This scheme was integrated under the Sagarmala Programme

Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020 *

The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in March 2020 with an aim to replace the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963.
The bill aims to decentralize decision making and infuse professionalism in the governance of ports. It will also help bring transparency to the operations of various ports.

Recycling of Ships Act, 2019 *

The Recycling of Ships Act, 2019 provides for the regulation of the recycling of ships by setting certain international standards and laying down the statutory mechanism for enforcement of such standards.

SAROD-Ports: *

SAROD-Ports was launched on 10 September 2020 by Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, MOS(IC) Shipping. These ports are for affordable and timely resolution of disputes in a fair manner and enrichment of Dispute Resolution Mechanism with the panel of technical experts as arbitrators.
This institution will promote ease of doing business in the maritime sector because of the fast, timely, cost-effective and robust dispute resolution mechanism.

Merchant Shipping Bill *

The envisioned advantages of the Merchant Shipping Bill, 2020 are promoting ease of doing business, embracing digital technology and increasing tonnage and Vessel as a Tradable Asset.
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has circulated a draft of the Indian Ports Bill 2020 for public consultation which will repeal and replace the Indian Ports Act, 1908 (Act No. 15 of 1908).

Subsidy support to Indian shipping companies *

A scheme for the promotion of flagging of merchant ships in India by providing INR 1624 crore over a period of five years as subsidy support to Indian shipping companies in global tenders has been approved by the Cabinet.
The rate of subsidy support will be based on age of the vessel.

Ship Building Financial Assistance Policy (2016-2026) *

Vessels for which the construction commences subsequent to the signing of valid contracts shall be eligible for grant of financial assistance. Vessels which are constructed and delivered within a period of three years from the date of the contract are eligible for availing financial assistance under the policy.
For specialized vessels, the delivery period can be extended till six years. Financial assistance shall be @ 20% of the contract price, actual receipts, fair price (whichever is least) to Indian shipyards.
Under the policy, the financial assistance extended would be reduced by 3% every three years.

Draft Guidelines for Operationalization of Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax ferry service along the coast of India*

The guidelines encompass the two aspects of ferry operation namely; concessions for terminal operation and license for operation of Ro-Pax vessels.*
These guidelines will homogenize and streamline the development and operations of ferry services, along with, promoting ease of doing business by eliminating unnecessary delays, disagreements and introducing digital interventions at customer interface. They will also help State/UT Governments and Port Authorities in implementation of such projects by standardization of procedures. Further, it will help in instilling confidence among the private players thereby increasing their participation and promoting healthy competition in such projects.*

Explore Government policies/ schemes in Ports and Shipping sector >

Financial Support

CONCOR has announced a volume-based rebate scheme of upto 100% on rail tariff w.e.f. 01.09.2021 for movement of empty containers from Ports to Hinterland for its further utilization in exports to resolve the issue of shortage of containers at the port. *