Indian Ports, Major Ports in India and Their Specialities

India has a long coastline, spanning 7516.6 kilometres, forming one of the biggest peninsulas in the world. It is serviced by 13 major ports (12 government and 1 corporate) and 187 notified minor and intermediate ports. The latest addition to major ports is Port Blair on June 2010, the 13th port in the country.

Major ports handled over 74% of all cargo traffic in 2007. However, the words "major", "intermediate" and "minor", do not have a strict association with the traffic volumes served by these ports. As an example, Mundra Port, a newly developed minor port in the state of Gujarat registered a cargo traffic of around 28.8 million tonnes per annum during the financial year of 2008, which is higher than that of many major ports.[citation needed]

The classification of Indian ports into major, minor and intermediate has an administrative significance. Indian government has a federal structure, and according to its constitution, maritime transport falls under the "concurrent list", to be administered by both the Central and the State governments. While the Central Shipping Ministry administer the major ports, the minor and intermediate ports are administered by the relevant departments or ministries in the nine coastal states—West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Several of these 187 minor and intermediate ports are merely "notified"; little or no cargo handling actually takes place. These ports have been identified by the respective governments to be developed, in a phased manner, a good proportion of them involving public–private partnership.

Cargo handling is projected to grow at 7.7% until 2013-14. Some 60% of India’s container traffic is handled by the Mumbai Port and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Navi Mumbai.

List of Major Ports in India (Indian Western Coast Major ports and Indian Eastern Coast Ports)

Following are the major Ports in India.
Western Coast   
Kandla (child of partition)   
Mumbai (busiest and biggest)    
Jawahar Lal Nehru (fastest growing)    
Marmugao (naval base also)    
Mangalore (exports Kudremukh iron-ore)    
Cochin (natural Harbour)    




Eastern Coast
Kolkata-Haldia (riverine port)
Paradip (exports raw iron to Japan)
Vishakjapatnam (deepest port)
Chennai (oldest and artifical)
Ennore (most modern-in private hands)
Tuticorin (southernmost )

Few Facts about some port:- Among major ports, Mumbai is the biggest. Kandla is a tidal port. Marmugao enjoys the second position by value of the tonnage of the bulk of which is export of Iron core. Vishakhapatnam is the deepest land-locked and protected port. Chennai has an artificial harbour, Kolkata is a riverine port, Haldia has a fully equipped containerised berth.

Shipping:- Overseas shipping has an extremely important role to play in India’s international trade. The country has the largest merchant shipping fleet among developing countries and ranks 17th in the world in shipping tonnage. There were 102 shipping companies in country operating as on 31 March 2000, includes shipping corporation of India, a public sector undertaking.

Source: Wiki