Ports

There are 11 major ports and 139 minor working ports along the 5600 km coastline of India.

Each major port is administered by a board of trustees in accordance with Major Port Trust Act 1963. Kandla is the busiest port. Mumbai handles about 12 percent of total traffic, bulk of which is petroleum products and dry cargo. New Mangalore has special facility for handling iron ore while Tuticorin port handles mainly coal. Cochin is a natural harbour.

Chennai handles mainly crude oil and iron ore. Visakhapatnam is the 'deepest port' where an outer harbour has been developed for exporting iron ore. It has facilities for handling petroleum products, dry cargo as well as multipurpose general cargo berth. Paradip handles iron ore and some quantities of coal and dry cargo. Calcutta is a riverine port handling diversified commodities. A new mechanised dock system at Haldia with provision for deep draft vessels supplements the Calcutta port. All major ports generated operating surpluses during 1998-99, handling a total traffic of 251 million tonnes during this period.

State governmnets are responsible for management and development of minor ports.

Shipping Companies

There were 92 shipping companies in the country as on March 31st' 1999, inluding Shipping Corporation of India, a public sector undertaking and nine other govt agencies. Of these, 61 are engaged exclusively in coastal trade, 18 in overseas trade and 13 in both coastal and overseas trade. Shipping Corporation of India is the largest shipping line with a merchant fleet of 119 vessels totalling 3.1 million GRT and operating on almost all marine routes. It acconts for about 45% of total Indian tonnage. Major private sector shipping companies which own two lakh or more GRT are:
- Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd (9.22 lakh GRT)
- Essar Shipping Company Ltd (4.41 lakh GRT)
- Chowgule Steamship Ltd (2.29 Lakh GRT)