Sea Ports as Gateways of International Trade

About

• India is surrounded by sea from three sides and is bestowed with a long coastline.
• India has a long tradition of sea faring and developed many ports with place name suffixed with pattan meaning port.
• west coast has more seaports than its east coast
• At present, India has 12 major ports and 185 minor or intermediate ports.
• In case of the major ports, central government decides the policy and plays regulatory functions.
• The minor ports are there whose policy and functions are regulated by state governments.

Kandla Port

• Situated at the head of Gulf of Kuchchh has been developed as a major port to cater to the needs of western and north western parts of the country and also to reduce the pressure at Mumbai port.
• The port is specially designed to receive large quantities of petroleum and petroleum products and fertiliser.
• The offshore terminal at Vadinar has been developed to reduce the pressure at Kandla port.

Mumbai

• Natural harbour
• The port is situated closer to the general routes from the countries of Middle East, Mediterranean countries, North Africa, North America and Europe where the major share of country’s overseas trade is carried out.
• M.P., Maharashtra, Gujarat, U.P. and parts of Rajasthan constitute the main hinterlands of Mumbai ports.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port

• At Nhava Sheva was developed as a satellite port to relieve the pressure at the Mumbai port.

Marmagao Port

• Situated at the entrance of the Zuari estuary is a natural harbour in Goa.
• It gained significance after its remodelling in 1961 to handle iron-ore exports to Japan.
• Construction of Konkan railway has considerably extended the hinterland of this port.
• Karnataka, Goa, Southern Maharashtra constitutes its hinterland.

New Mangalore Port

• Located in the state of Karnataka and caters to the needs of the export of iron-ore and iron-concentrates.
• It also handles fertilisers, petroleum products, edible oils, coffee, tea, wood pulp, yarn, granite stone, molasses, etc.
• Karnataka is the major hinterland for this port.

Kochchi Port

• Situated at the head of Vembanad Kayal, popularly known as the “Queen of the Arabian Sea,” is also a natural harbour.
• This port has an advantageous location being close to the Suez-Colombo route.
• It caters to the needs of Kerala, southern- Karnataka and south western Tamil Nadu.

Kolkata Port

• Hugli River, 128 km inland from the Bay of Bengal. Like the Mumbai port, this port was also developed by the British.
• Kolkata port is also confronted with the problem of silt accumulation in the Hugli River which provides a link to the sea.
• Its hinterland covers U.P., Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim and the north-eastern states.
• Apart from this, it also extends ports facilities to our neighbouring land-locked countries such as Nepal and Bhutan.

Haldia Port

• Kolkata.
• It has been constructed to reduce the congestion at Kolkata port.
• It handles bulk cargo like iron ore, coal, petroleum, petroleum products and fertilisers, jute, jute products, cotton and cotton yarn, etc.

Paradwip Port

• Mahanadi delta, Cuttack
• It has the deepest harbour specially suited to handle very large vessels.
• It has been developed mainly to handle large-scale export of iron-ore.
• Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are the parts of its hinterland.

Visakhapatnam Port

• Andhra Pradesh—- land-locked harbour, connected to the sea by a channel cut through solid rock and sand.

Chennai Port

• Eastern coast
• It is an artificial harbour built in 1859.
• It is not much suitable for large ships because of the shallow waters near the coast.
• Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry are its hinterland.

Ennore Port

• Tamil Nadu, north of Chennai
• Relieve the pressure at Chennai port.

Tuticorin Port

• Was also developed to relieve the pressure of Chennai port.
• It deals with a variety of cargo including coal, salt, food grains, edible oils, sugar, chemicals and petroleum products