Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), a nodal agency to regulate ports in Gujarat informed that the capacity of traffic handling at GMB ports will increase to 323 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by the end of the current fiscal year.
"The consolidated cargo handling of GMB ports at the end of third quarter (April-December 2011) of the current fiscal stood at 193.18 million tonnes (MT) as against 169.95 MT in the corresponding period a year ago, showing growth of 13.66 per cent," GMB stated in a statement.
It is envisaged that by the year 2015-16, GMB ports will have traffic handling capacity of more than 500 MTPA, and of more than 1000 million tonnes by 2020.
"The proactive measures taken by the government have ensured that natural advantages are not wasted. This has helped Gujarat to become the number one maritime state in the country," said Pankaj Kumar, vice chairman and CEO of GMB.
According to the GMB statement, in the last decade alone, capacity of GMB ports has more than doubled from 135 million tons to 284 million tons at the end of 2010-11. The cargo traffic has increased at the non-major ports like Magdalla/Hazira, Bedi, Dahej, Sikka and Mundra besides others.
As per the statistics provided by the GMB, the traffic at Magdalla/Hazira port increased to 16.40 MT upto December 2011 versus 14.14 MT in the corresponding period a year ago.
Meanwhile, due to fast paced developments, the cargo traffic at Dahej Port has jumped to 13.18 MT upto December 2011 as against 10.34 MT in the same period a year ago.
