Union Shipping and Ports Minister Nitin Gadkari indicated that existing 12 ports are not enough to meet the development requirements of the country and hence eight more ports are to be constructed in the future.
Speaking at the Maritime summit at Mumbai, Mr Gadkari clarified that the eight includes the already announced three ports. At present, Wadhwan in Maharashtra, Sagar in West Bengal and Colachel in Tamil Nadu are about to enter the construction stage. These three ports need an investment of Rs 25000 crore.
In recent times, the private sector has marched ahead of the public sector in establishing port facilities. Gautam Adani’s Mundra Port and SEZ has achieved remarkable progress in cargo handling.
Port development in the country was on slow mode despite government’s Sagarmala programme. Slow handling at major ports are sending away foreign ships to neighboring ports like Colombo.
According to the Minister, the existing 12 major ports have generated a profit of Rs 4200 crore during the last year.
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