12th Plan: 7 Major ports in 7 Coastal States
- Government is planning to develop one major port each in seven coastal states during the 12th Five Year Plan.
- The estimated cost of investment is pegged between Rs 18,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore from 2012 to 2017.The Centre needs to spend Rs 2,500 crore or more to develop each port. Currently, there are 13 major and 176 non-major ports in the country.
- Government records show that in the first quarter of this fiscal (April-June), there was an increase of 4.8% in cargo traffic to 193 million tonnes (MT) at major portscompared to 184 MT during the corresponding period last fiscal. Only three major ports — Chennai, Mumbai and Mormugao — registered negative growth.
Its worth note that shipping ministry has chalked out an ambitious target of creating a port capacity of around 3,200 MT to handle the expected traffic of about 2, 500 MT by 2020. Please note that about 90% by volume and 70% by value of the country’s international trade is carried through maritime transport.
Related Posts
Month: Current Affairs - November, 2011