The Indian coastline is dotted with 12 major ports and 187 minor ports. A majority of the country's international trade is carried out through maritime transport, with major ports handling about 74 per cent of the total sea-borne traffic.

By 2012, the Indian government targets increasing the cargo handling capacity of major ports by two folds to reach 1.5 billion metric tonnes (MT). The investments to achieve this would be around US$ 25 billion, and would be through public-private partnerships. According to Crisil research estimates, ports will grow by 160 per cent over the 2007–08 and 2011–12 period.

The Indian government has set up the National Maritime Development Plan (NMDP) to improve facilities at India's 12 major ports and it plans an expenditure of around US$ 12.4 billion.

Under the plan, India's foremost container port, Jawaharlal Nehru, will be seeing a massive expansion and upgradation drive, with around US$ 1.78 billion slated for the development of port infrastructure, including the deepening and widening of its main navigational channel, over the next five years.

Further, by November 2009, the first phase of the international container transhipment terminal (ICTT) project at Vallarpadam is likely to be completed, and Kochi port will soon emerge as a transhipment hub for India. The construction work for the first phase of the international container transhipment terminal (ICTT) project is rolling speedily at Vallarpadam. This will make Kochi an important shipping centre, reducing India’s dependence on foreign ports for transshipment.

India is also likely to emerge as a major destination for container operations. The liberalisation of the economy has lead to a rapid growth of the container trade. The container trade went up to 7.2 million TEUs by 2007 from 2.47 million TEUs in 2000.

Port Traffic

According to the Indian Ports Association, the 12 major ports together handled a total of 519.24 million tonnes (MT) of cargo in 2007–08, an increase of 11.94 per cent over 463.78 MT handled in 2006–07. Further, the total cargo traffic handled by the 12 ports during April–September 2008–09 has been 261.73 MT as against 244.14 MT in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Cargo throughput at the 12 ports has been rising by a compound annual growth rate of 9.5 per cent over the past three years.

Container throughput at India's 12 major ports increased by 19.03 per cent year-on-year for the fiscal year 2008. The 12 major ports handled 6.60 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot equivalent Units) in the 12 months till March 2008. Navi Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru port (Nhava Sheva) handled 4.06 million TEUs, which was above 61 per cent of the overall throughput.

Container throughput at Jawaharlal Nehru port increased by 23 per cent year-on-year, establishing it as India's largest and busiest port.

India’s overall container traffic posted a year-on-year growth of 19 per cent during the 2007–08, with the throughput touching 6.7 million TEU at its ports.

During April to June 2008, container throughput at Indian ports totalled to 1,056,556 TEUs, exhibiting a growth of 12.18 per cent year on year. If the current growth rate of 19 per cent is maintained, India's container throughput is likely to reach 21 million TEUs per year by 2016.

Further, according to a study by ICRA, driven by a buoyant world economy and high growth in merchandise exports, the Indian port traffic is estimated to grow at the rate of 10–12 per cent per annum during 2007–12. The overall port traffic at both major and minor ports are estimated to grow from 588.63 MT in 2006–07 to 1008.95 MT by 2012.

This projected increase in port traffic will in turn necessitate capacity expansion of the ports. Already, 276 projects entailing an investment of US$ 13.70 billion have been identified. These include development of new berths, expansion and upgradation of existing berths, deepening of channels, equipment modernisation and upgradation of rail and road connectivity.