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| The growth in traffic at minor ports dropped to 3 per cent in 2002-03, against a compounded annual growth rate of 31 per cent between 1995-96 and 2001-02. |
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| The major ports, however, recorded a 9 per cent growth in traffic during the last financial year, against a 7.8 per cent compounded annual growth rate between 1995-96 and 2001-02. |
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| The share of traffic handled by minor ports also dropped to 24 per cent in 2002-03 from 25 per cent in 2001-02. |
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| Data compiled by the Indian Ports Association reveal that traffic handled by minor ports grew from 25.7 million tonnes in 1995-96 to 99 million tonnes traffic in 2002-03. |
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| The increase in traffic at major ports was, however, subdued during the last five years. While the traffic handled in 1995-96 was 215.2 million tonnes, it rose to 313 million tonnes in 2002-03. |
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| The figures for the last financial year are tentative. In 1995-96, minor ports accounted for just 11 per cent of the total cargo handled, which increased to 24 per cent in 2002-03. |
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| The 9 per cent growth in traffic handled by major ports in 2002-03 was driven by an increase in petroleum, oil and lubricant cargo due to the expansion of the Mangalore Refinery, port officials said. |
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| It is expected that the share of minor port traffic in total port traffic will plateau at around 25 per cent in the next couple of years till they increase their presence in container traffic. The minor ports, at present, play a limited role as far as container traffic is concerned. |
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| The most striking feature in the growth figures of port traffic is the way minor ports have consistently managed to leap ahead till 2001-02. Even as the total traffic handled by minor ports jumped 18 per cent to 36.3 million tonnes in 1998-99 from 1995-96, the major ports saw a compounded growth of 12.2 per cent at 271.2 million tonnes. |
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| The minor ports had a windfall in 2000-01, with the total cargo managed by them climbing 74 per cent to 62.5 million tonnes. The setting up of the Reliance refinery plant in Gujarat was responsible for boosting the traffic handled by minor ports, a ports official said. |
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| Owing to expansion of the Gujarat Refinery plant capacity from 14 million tonnes to 39 million tonnes in 2001-02, the traffic handled at minor ports climbed 53 per cent to 96 million tonnes, against a mere 2.1 per cent hike in traffic at the major ports. |
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The same year, minor ports attained a peak of 25 per cent share in the total port traffic.
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