We are dredging ports to handle larger ships: Shipping Secy

The Dollar Business Bureau 

As part of its endeavours to enable ports to handle larger vessels, the Ministry of Shipping has started an exercise of dredging the prevailing ports, said a senior official from the ministry. 

The ministry expects that minimum of four ports in India will be able to manage larger ships in the coming three years. 

“We are dredging our existing ports to take up larger ships because the size of ships is growing (the world over) and they need a deep draft (to berth). We expect that in another three years, at least four ports will be ready to handle up to 18-metre draft large ships, which is the largest one (currently)," said Rajiv Kumar, Shipping Secretary during Regional Editors Conference held in Chennai on Friday. 

He stated that the ministry has undertaken various measures to set up six new ports, which include the Inayam port near Colachal in Tamil Nadu, while adding that the plan is to create Inayam as a key transshipment port to support the facilities developed by Vizhinjam port in Kerala. 

He noted that last year, the ports in the country touched a 'milestone' of managing $1 billion worth of cargo. “All the key ports have recorded great improvement in their profitability and efficiency," he added. 

Kumar further said that the ministry has taken efforts to enhance the capacity of the ports to two-fold by 2025, including the ports in the private sector. 

In the coming 10 years, the capacity of ports will go up to 3,000 million tonnes from the current 1,500 million tonnes, he added.

For rapid movement of containers and cargo at ports, Kumar said that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags would be employed at all the ports.