Posted on September 2, 2026
Deendayal Port, on India’s northwestern Gujarat coast, is a strategically positioned major port on India’s primary westbound trade routes to the Middle East and Europe, placing it on some of the most commercially significant maritime lanes in the Indian Ocean region. It is also India’s largest major port by overseas cargo. This brief assesses the potential for establishing Deendayal Port as a node along a green shipping corridor, a route where ports, shipping companies, fuel suppliers, and governments coordinate on low-carbon alternative fuel supply and infrastructure. It focuses on engagement with the European Union-connected fleet, which faces near-term obligations to reduce emissions under the FuelEU Maritime regulation and the International Maritime Organization’s emergent Net-Zero Framework.
Based on an analysis of Deendayal Port’s cargo and trade data, the global and EU regulatory landscape, and a comparison of alternative fuel pathways, the brief sets out recommendations at three levels:
At the port level:
- Engage EU-connected operators directly, rather than waiting for them to inquire, by identifying the shipping companies most active on India-Europe routes and approaching them through formal dialogue. The Getting to Zero Coalition, an industry platform that convenes around 200 maritime, energy, infrastructure, and financial stakeholders around specific corridor projects, offers a ready venue for this kind of engagement.
- Explore green ammonia supply pathways for maritime decarbonization, since India’s existing ammonia production is predominantly fossil-based and does not yet serve maritime decarbonization goals.
At the national policy level:
- Connect green fuel production to maritime offtake by identifying the production-to-port supply chain arrangements needed to enable green methanol bunkering, backed by targeted incentives such as production subsidies and port handling concessions.
- Extend goods and services tax (GST) exemptions to renewable marine fuels bunkered by international vessels, and streamline customs procedures to reduce lead times.
- Translate Harit Sagar green port goals from aspiration to obligation, with binding milestones for corridor readiness at designated hub ports.
On international corridor positioning:
- Identify and engage candidate EU anchor ports, with Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Antwerp as the most commercially logical candidates to explore at the outset.
- Engage with the Global Maritime Forum’s corridor network to access technical assistance, template documentation, and peer learning from corridors that have already reached the realization stage.
