The country's 12 major ports recorded a 3.64 per cent growth in cargo traffic during April-December 2017 at 499.41 million tonnes (MT), as per official data.
Eight major ports -- Kolkata (including Haldia), Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, JNPT, and Kandla -- registered positive growth in traffic during the period.
"The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 3.64 per cent and together handled 499.41 million tonnes of cargo during the period April to December 2017 as against 481.87 million tonnes handled during the corresponding period of previous year," the Ministry of Shipping said.
The highest growth was registered by Cochin Port (17.27 per cent), followed by Paradip (14.59 per cent), Kolkata (12.45 per cent), New Mangalore (6.60 per cent) and JNPT (5.94 per cent).
Cochin Port growth was mainly due to increase in traffic of petroleum, oil and lubricants (24.10 per cent) and containers (10.79 per cent), the ministry said.
In Kolkata Port, overall growth was 12.45 per cent.
During April to December 2017, Kandla Port handled the highest volume of traffic at 81.12 MT, followed by Paradip (74.40 MT), JNPT (48.89 MT), Mumbai (47.53 MT), and Visakhapatnam (46.56 MT). Together, these five ports handled around 60 per cent of the major port traffic.
India has 12 major ports -- Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.