Impact of Infrastructure Development on the Ports of India's Western Coast

Commissioning of Konkan railway along the west coast in January 1998 was a major step towards infrastructure development in India. Completion of Konkan railway has provided impetus for the development of the coastal areas by connecting the major ports. The ports which are directly benefited by the completion of Konkan railway are: JNPT (Nhava Sheva), Mormugao and Mangalore. This paper aims to study the impact of infrastructure development, i.e. commissioning of Konkan railway on these three ports. The imports and exports from these ports prior to construction of Konkan railway are compared with the latest (2000-01) statistics of import and export. The changes in the volume and composition of traffic of these ports as a consequence of their increased accessibility are analysed. The share of the three ports in India's export trade is much more than in its import trade. Over half of India's exports of iron ore, over one third of the country's exports of POL products and one fourth of the exports of other liquids were handled by these three ports in 2000-01. Our analysis reveals that infrastructure development at and around the ports of western coast has a positive impact on the traffic handled by these ports. Value and volume of traffic handled by these ports have increased. With the improvement in infrastructure facilities for handling the specialised cargo, the import and export of liquid bulk cargo have significantly increased. The impact is most remarkable in case of JNPT. where the exports have increased at a higher rate than the imports. The improved connectivity of western coastal ports after the construction of Konkan railway has helped to relieve the congestion at the Mumbai port. With infrastructure development at ports and improvement in goods traffic handled by Konkan railway in due course of time, traffic at these ports will be further augmented.