Emphasising on capacity creation at ports across India, a top government official today said that the country needs ports that can receive bigger vessels.
"Shipyards globally are now building vessels that are very huge and can take advantage on scale and bring down the cost of goods and transport," K Mohandas, Shipping Secretary, said in his inaugural address at a conference on 'Port-led Development', organised by CII and the Gujarat Maritime Board here.
"Many vessels now being built (abroad) are 13,000 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit), while the capacity of our ports is a maximum of 8000 TEU, and that too at few ports," he said.
He pointed out that the capacity of ports across the country was inadequate. "When we say that capacity utilisation at ports is more than 90-95 per cent-- it means that the ports are inefficient. The ports need to be waiting for ships. Vessels need not be waiting at the anchorage point," he said.
"Port capacity should be adequately developed for efficient and quick reception of vessels and evacuation of cargo," he added.