its shipping industry. Although the airline services have made transportation of goods and services much easier, most of the trade dealings are still made through the maritime facilities as it is much safer and economical. The purpose of ports is to serve as a station for loading and unloading cargo ships. There are different types of ports that serve different purposes like dry ports, inland ports, fishing ports, warm water ports, and seaports. Out of all these, seaports are the busiest and offer additional facilities like warehouses, docking, and vessels, etc. In India, services and infrastructure have developed highly in the past two decades. The major ports in India are not only handling the bulk of Indian trade but also offer quality service. Let us have a look at the top 3 major ports in India under this category to get to know about it better.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT)
The Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also referred to as Nhava Sheva, is the largest and busiest container port in India. It is situated on the Arabian Sea in the east of Mumbai and handles almost 56% of India’s containerised cargo. It consists of 30 container freight stations, a custom house, and connects to 52 Inland ports across the country.
A part of JNPT, the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal(NSICT) was India’s first privately managed container terminal. The major exports from this port include textile machinery, sporting goods, boneless meat, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, etc. whereas the major imports are vegetable oils, plastics, chemicals, electrical machinery and non-ferrous metal.
Formerly named as Madras port, second on the list of major ports in India is the Chennai port. It is situated in the Bay of Bengal and is almost 135 years old. In recent years, the port handles almost 60 million tonnes of cargo which is why it is ranked as the 86th largest port in the world.
The Chennai port is not only the primary reason for the economic growth and development of Tamil Nadu over the years but also the reason why Chennai came to be known as “The Gateway of South India”. The port deals with a variety of cargo including petroleum products, automobiles, fertilisers, iron ore, granite and containers, etc. It extends its services to countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Europe, China and the United States.
The Mundra port is the largest private port in India and the third busiest port in terms of container traffic. It is situated on the north shore in Kutch district, Gujarat. It was founded by the Gujarat Adani Port Ltd., a joint-sector company, in 1998.
The Mundra Port created history in the year 2013-14 by handling 100 million tonnes of cargo, registering itself as the first Indian port to do so. It offers 21 closed dockside warehouses with a capacity of 137 thousand square meters. The port has developed commodity-specific storage areas and is designed to handle all types of cargo like automobiles, containers, liquid cargo, dry bulk and break bulk. The annual cargo handling capacity of the port was recorded 338 MMT in February 2015.
The Mundra port is under development to become a business location for a number of sectors including Light and Heavy Engineering, textiles and apparel, Agriproduct processing, timber and furniture, etc.
The success and progress of these ports in India are enough to signify the importance of ports and their purpose. The growth and development of ports contribute to the upliftment of the shipping industry. Therefore, a country’s strong grip on international trade can only be possible if it has well-developed ports and shipping facilities.