How India maintains logistics operations at its coastal areas

India has always been known as a coastal country, with water surrounding its borders from three sides. With one of the biggest peninsulas in the world, India has a coastline that spans almost 7600 kilometers and that has established it to be one of the biggest shipping cargo destinations in the world.

Indian coastal shipping services comprise of 95% of the total trading when it comes to volume and 70% when it comes to value. Maritime transport, therefore, is a huge contributor to the economy and also strengthens India’s position as a global leader in goods trading and transporting. The country has a lot of major ports that handle volumes of shipping every day. Here are a few ports in India that have become important over the last few years.

Vishakhapatnam 

The Vishakhapatnam port is the second-largest port in India when it comes to the volume of cargo that is handled. It is also very strategically placed between the Chennai and Kolkata ports and it comprises three harbors. During the Second World War, the military significance of the port increased, because of its proximity and ease of access to a lot of nations actively involved in the war. India's independence gave way to the growth of the port with various five Year Plans that were implemented by the government. The port has grown from 3 berths handling 1.3 lakh tonnes per annum to one with 24 berths and annual traffic of 65 million tonnes. 

Kochi Port

The Kochi Port is also another important port which is located on the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean water network. The city itself is known as the Port City, because of its various maritime-related facilities that include the Kochi Shipyard, Kochi Refineries, and the Kochi Marina. It also compromises one of the largest supply chains in India, with a total of 13 berths available for cargo shipping. 

New Mangalore Port

What makes the New Mangalore Port unique to the other ports is that the port itself is all-weather and is the deepest inner harbor in India. It is also the seventh-largest port in India and is comparatively newer to the other ports. It was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974. The major commodities exported through this port are iron ore concentrates, iron ore fines, manganese, granite stones, coffee, and cashew. The major imports of the port are crude and petroleum products, LPG, wood pulp, timber logs, liquid ammonia, phosphoric acid, and other liquid chemicals.