The average turnaround time of ships, a key parameter to measure a port’s efficiency, has reduced by 25 per cent to 64.4 hours in 2017-18 from 87.3 hours in 2015-16, said Kailash Kumar Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Shipping.

The higher efficiency and productivity had translated into the net profit of major ports increasing by nearly 75 per cent to ₹3,414 crore between financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18, he said.

Also, two major ports — Deendayal (formerly known as Kandla port) and Paradip — achieved the milestone of handling 100 million tonnes of cargo in a year. While Deendayal port achieved it in 2016-17, the Paradip port did it in 2017-18, said Aggarwal.

Sagarmala effect

Aggarwal said that since the start of the Sagarmala programme, capacity at major ports had increased by nearly 50 per cent to 1,451 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). An additional 190 MTPA capacity is expected to be created by 2020, he said at the two-day CII Port Conclave 2018.

Private sector role

On the private sector role in ports, Aggarwal said 16 projects entailing an investment of around ₹20,000 crore and 268 MTPA capacity are under implementation. Based on experience, concession models are being revised to enable further private sector involvement in improving the ports, he said.

A total of 605 projects costing ₹8.8 lakh crore have been identified for execution so far. These projects are being executed in a phased manner keeping in mind the needs of various stakeholders, the requirement of infrastructure at specific locations, viability of the projects and readiness of the ecosystem, including logistics supply chain.

Of the 605 projects, 255, costing ₹2.6 lakh crore, have already been awarded, he said.

Pon Radhakrishnan, Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping, said, “Though we have improved the overall efficiency and reduced the ship turnaround time, we need to rise to global standards. I hope the port modernisation programme under Sagarmala will address this issue.”

Logistics cost reduction

Reducing the logistics cost is the key to improving competitiveness. The Centre has taken various initiatives on this front to improve the logistics system in terms of cost, efficiency, sustainability and safety. Poor logistics eventually contributes to higher cost of doing business and higher prices for goods and services in the economy.

The vision of Sagarmala programme is to reduce the logistics cost for both domestic and Exim cargo with optimised infrastructure investment, Radhakrishnan added.