UPA Cabinet Approves Two New Major Ports in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh - Thursday May 09,2013

Giving a push to infrastructure development, the government, on Thursday, approved a proposal to set up two major ports in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh at an investment of about Rs.15,820 crore

The new port in West Bengal, which will have a capacity of 54 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), requires an investment of around Rs.7,820 crore.The need for a port at Sagar in West Bengal was felt as the existing ports at Kolkata and Haldia were facing capacity constraints.

The other new port in Andhra Pradesh, whose projected capacity is around 50 mtpa, would entail an investment of about Rs.8,000 crore .The location for port in Andhra Pradesh has not yet been finalised, and the State Government has identified three locations — Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam, Ramayyapatnam in Prakasam and Dugarajapatnam in Nellore

The new ports will be notified as major ports under the Indian Ports Act, 1908.

Major ports come under the Central Government, while minor ports are operated by State governments as well as by the private sector

There are at present 12 major ports —

• Kolkata-Halida
•  Paradip
•  Visakhapatnam
•  Ennore
• Chennai
•  V O Chidambaranar (formerly Tuticorin)
•  Kochi
•  New Mangalore
•  Mormugao
•  Mumbai
• Jawaharlal Nehru (JNPT) and 
•  Kandla.

                                              
                                                                numbers are in million tonnes