Jan 12: Even as efforts are on to boost Goa’s maritime industry, the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) witnessed the least traffic among all the major ports in the country, according to the ministry for ports, shipping and waterways.
Statistics released by the ministry this week reveals that the Mormugao Port handled 1,665 tonne of cargo traffic in December. Furthermore for the first three quarters of ongoing 2022-23, the port handled 12.2 million tonne of cargo, which is the lowest among all the 12 major ports across India.
In 2021-22, the port had handled 18.4 million tonne of cargo, disclosed the ministry in its latest performance dashboard under Sagarmala.
Analysis of the goods transported at Mormugao reveals that coal comprises the major chunk (64%) of volume handled by the port with 7.8 lakh tonne of coal cargo moved during the April-December months.
The other cargo handled includes petroleum products such as crude, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), iron ore pellets, containers, etc.
Meanwhile, the information disclosed by the ministry shows that Goa’s waterways have also fared badly in transporting goods via the inland rivers. Although efforts are on by the state to promote inland water transport, cargo movement on Goa’s waterways crashed 54% during the April- November period of 2022.
The two national waterways of the state, the NW 68 (Mandovi River) and the NW 111 (Zuari River) handled just 14 lakh tonne of cargo during the eight months of the 2022, vis-à-vis 30.5 lakh tonne in the comparative months of 2021.
In contrast, goods movement in national waterways of other states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat registered a healthy growth during the said period. Overall the average volume of cargo transported through the national waterways registered growth of 18.5% in April- November 2022.
The state has rich network of inland rivers but not even 50% of the inland waterways are presently being used to ease the congestion on roads, according to sources.
With negligible goods movement on the rivers, the Union ministry takes into account only the Mandovi and Zuari rivers while reviewing performance of national waterways. Both the two rivers are highly dependent on the iron ore mining industry for cargo traffic. With the mining industry closed, the two national waterways of the state are left high and dry.
As per the performance review of the ministry for shipping, the major ports handled 57.6 million tonne of traffic in April-December 2022, registering a growth of 8.9% over the corresponding traffic in 2021- 22.
Source: Navhindtimes
| For the first three quarters of ongoing 2022-23, the port handled 12.2 million tonne of cargo | Major ports handled 57.6 million tonne of traffic in April-December 2022, registering a growth of 8.9% |
| It is the lowest among all the 12 major ports across India | The other cargo handled includes petroleum products such as crude, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), iron ore pellets, containers, etc |
| Coal comprises a major chunk (64%) of volume handled by the port with 7.8 lakh tonne of coal cargo moved during the April-December months |
