Non-major ports in Gujarat post 13.71 pc throughput growth

Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) has shown a distinct growth model of business, by adopting policy reforms and harnessing the 1,600-km coastline with a sea of opportunities, according to Exim News Service.

Its success was once again reflected with the non-major ports in Gujarat registering a creditable 13.71 per cent growth in cargo handling at 149.51 million tonnes in April-November 2010, compared to 131.49 million tonnes handled in April-November 2009.

In 2009-10, ports under GMB had handled 206 million tonnes of cargo, as against the total handling capacity of 244 million tonnes per annum at the end of the year.

The performance has been driven by ports like Sikka, Bedi, Magdalla, Mul Dwarka and Mundra (new), which achieved traffic growth of 16 per cent, 7 per cent, 13 per cent, 14 per cent and 21.64 per cent, respectively, during April-November 2010 over the same period of the previous year.

Traffic at Sikka port increased from 65.93 million tonnes to 76.53 million tonnes, while at Bedi the rise was from 14.21 million tonnes to 15.21 million tonnes.

Traffic at Magdalla port increased from 10.49 million tonnes to 11.80 million tonnes, and there was improvement in container traffic at Mundra.

On the other hand, the total volume at the 12 Major Ports witnessed a marginal growth of 1.70 per cent year-on-year for April-October 2010 over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

A total of 5,375 ships have been recycled and 37.57 million tonnes of LDT steel generated since its inception at Gujarat’s ship-recycling yard.

The non-major ports in the state have the unique distinction of handling a wide variety of cargo. There are container terminals, LNG terminals, dry bulk and liquid bulk cargo terminals, SPM-fast liquid cargo handling terminals, car terminals, ro-ro terminals, terminals for handling over dimensional cargo (ODC), deepwater berths/jetties, besides shipbuilding yards, etc.

Not one to rest on its laurels, GMB is constantly initiating new projects. It is currently in the process of setting up cluster-based marine shipbuilding parks, with the government recently approving three projects. As part of strengthening the road network in and around the ports, concreting work has been taken up in a phased manner.

The Bharuch-Dahej Rail Company has been established under a special purpose vehicle (SPV) and the 64-km-long Bharuch-Dahej broad gauge rail connectivity is under implementation.

With the process of development and progress continuing, GMB is confident of its ports maintaining their upward trend in traffic handling. A release added that the Board had emerged a winner even during the recession period, and was well positioned to accomplish more milestones.

"We achieved record growth of 13.70 per cent in cargo handling over the preceding year, while the Major Ports registered only 1.70 per cent growth. Gujarat’s vibrant
ports are scaling new heights of achievement," emphasises Mr Pankaj Kumar, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman, GMB.
(Source:www.transportweekly.com)