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Ports
There are 11
major ports and 139 minor working ports along the 5600 km coastline
of India.
Each major port is administered by a board of trustees in accordance
with Major Port Trust Act 1963. Kandla is the busiest port. Mumbai
handles about 12 percent of total traffic, bulk of which is petroleum
products and dry cargo. New Mangalore has special facility for
handling iron ore while Tuticorin port handles mainly coal. Cochin
is a natural harbour.
Chennai handles mainly crude oil and iron ore. Visakhapatnam is
the 'deepest port' where an outer harbour has been developed for
exporting iron ore. It has facilities for handling petroleum products,
dry cargo as well as multipurpose general cargo berth. Paradip
handles iron ore and some quantities of coal and dry cargo. Calcutta
is a riverine port handling diversified commodities. A new mechanised
dock system at Haldia with provision for deep draft vessels supplements
the Calcutta port. All major ports generated operating surpluses
during 1998-99, handling a total traffic of 251 million tonnes
during this period.
State governmnets are responsible for management and development
of minor ports.
Shipping Companies
There were 92 shipping companies in the country as on March 31st'
1999, inluding Shipping Corporation of India, a public sector
undertaking and nine other govt agencies. Of these, 61 are engaged
exclusively in coastal trade, 18 in overseas trade and 13 in both
coastal and overseas trade. Shipping Corporation of India is the
largest shipping line with a merchant fleet of 119 vessels totalling
3.1 million GRT and operating on almost all marine routes. It
acconts for about 45% of total Indian tonnage. Major private sector
shipping companies which own two lakh or more GRT are:
- Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd (9.22 lakh GRT)
- Essar Shipping Company Ltd (4.41 lakh GRT)
- Chowgule Steamship Ltd (2.29 Lakh GRT)
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