India’s major ports continue facing disruption in their cargo handling operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting a 16.56% drop to 245.04 million tonnes (MT) between April and August this fiscal, according to the apex ports body IPA.
Accordingly, it is reported that cargo volumes at these 12 major ports under the control of the Centre declined for the fifth straight month in August 2020 and all ports barring Mormugao saw a negative growth.
All 12 ports handled 293.67 MT of cargo during April-August 2018-19, according to the Indian Ports Association.
India has 12 major ports under the control of the central government — Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia).
Ports such as Chennai, Cochin and Kamrajar saw their cargo volumes fell about 30% during April-August, while JNPT and Kolkata suffered a drop of over 20%.
In addition, Kamarajar port saw 31.64% decline in cargo handling to 9.11 MT, Chennai port suffered a drop of 30.36% to 14.42 MT in April-August, as per IPA data. Following this decline, Cochin Port saw a dip of 29.88% to 10.04 MT during the period.
Cargo handling operations at JNPT port decreased by 25.53% to 21.68 MT, while the same at Kolkata declined 23.74%to 20.65 MT. Mumbai port declined by 19.31% to 20.15 MT.
It is highlighted that all the above mentioned ports handle about 61% of the country’s total cargo traffic.
These ports handle about 61 per cent of the country’s total cargo traffic. These ports handled 705 MT of cargo last fiscal.