Posted on April 18, 2017
India’s 12 major ports posted a record profit of about `5,000 crore for 2016-17, powered by the shipping ministry’s focus on reducing the turnaround time of ships and adding various non-core commodities to its freight basket. These ports had reported a profit of Rs 4,000 crore in the previous fiscal.
“We have grown faster than the private ports. Our growth has been 6.79% compared to 4% of the private sector,” shipping and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari told ET.
Gadkari said his ministry is aiming for a profit of Rs 7,000 crore in 2017-18.
In 2016-17, Goa’s Mormugao port posted a growth of 60%, the highest ever recorded by any port in the country. However, JNPT reported the highest-ever profit of Rs 1,303 crore. Major ports have shown significant growth since 2014 as the volume growth increased from 555 million tonnes to 648 million tonnes in 2016-17.
“The traffic at major ports has been steadily growing. It reached a record level of 647 million tonnes during FY17.
“Among commodities handles, iron ore showed a growth of 163% and we exported over 2.5 lakh cars from Mumbai port,” Gadkari said.
He said that the profit of all shipping corporations will be much more as the numbers for Shipping Corporation of India and Dredging Corporation of India are yet to be reported.
The minister said that the government is building two smart cities at Paradip port and Kandla port.
He said the shipping ministry’s focus in the current financial year will be to add capacity of 103 million tonnes and develop Mumbai port as the country’s hub for cruise tourism. “We are building the country’s first terminal at a cost of `800 crore at Mumbai port. We expect to handle almost 100 international cruise ships a year from there,” Gadkari said.
Speaking on the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill 2016, which was passed by Lok Sabha recently, Gadkari said the bill will clear the last hurdle of getting clearance from Rajya Sabha during the next session of Parliament.
The bill proposes hefty penalty for automakers that make faulty vehicles or manipulate their software to bypass the emission norms. The bill has also proposed a minimum insurance claim of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the dead in case of a road crash.
Source: The Economic Times
