Capacity of major ports stand at 744 mn tpa

As on March 31, 2013, the aggregate capacity of all major ports in the country stood at 744.91 million tonne per annum (mn tpa).

This information was given by the minister of state for shipping Milind Deora in Rajya Sabha. Owing to ban on iron-ore mining and global slowdown, the traffic at major ports declined last year, the minister informed.

He also informed that the capacity of major ports would rise by about 220 million tonne once the port modernisation and expansion projects under implementation are completed.

The government is implementing these project at an estimated cost of Rs 12,000 crore.

Meanwhile, the government mandated all major ports to prepare RFD document (results framework document) from this year.

The ports will have to mention in the document the key results they want to achieve during the financial year on various performance indicators. The document provides objectives and the basis to evaluate port performance at the end of the year.

Government has set a target of 609 million tonne of cargo volume for the 13 major ports in 2013-14.