Cargo volume at major ports in India surged 6 percent during the April-January period compared with a year earlier, amid strong indications that the recovery will accelerate in the coming months.
Consolidated cargo throughput for the 10-month period was estimated at 463 million tons, up from 437 million tons in the year-ago period.
Volume in January increased 13 percent to 51 million tons from 45 million tons in the same month the previous year.
The preliminary data released by the Indian Ports Association indicates that the ports of Kandla, Chennai, Paradip, Mormugao and Mumbai reported significant gains in overall traffic movements.
Kandla emerged as the top cargo handler with throughput of 66 million tons, followed by Visakhapatnam, at 55 million tons; Chennai, at 51 million tons; Jawaharlal Nehru, at 50 million tons; Paradip, at 47.3 million tons; and Mumbai, at 45.5 million tons.
Volume improvements come as the Shipping Ministry plans to augment the overall port capacity to 1 billion tons by 2012, from about 575 million tons now, under a seven-year National Maritime Development Program started in 2005.
Details about containerized traffic handled at major ports were not immediately available. In a separate statement, Mumbai said it handled 47,089 20-foot equivalent units during April-December, down from 83,975 TEUs a year ago. Volume in January dropped to 5,927 TEUs from 6,626 TEUs on a year-on-year basis.
In fiscal 2008-09, throughput at major ports rose 2 percent to 530 million tons from 519 million tons the previous year.