To increase the efficiency of major ports, a new berthing policy for dry bulk cargo will be in place from August 20, the government announced. According to India’s Ministry of Shipping, the new policy will provide a standardized framework for calculation of norms, specific to the commodity handled, and the infrastructure available on the berth. It will reduce berthing time and overall turn-around time of ships, and drive higher cargo throughput using the available infrastructure in major ports.

The Economic Times says that the policy aims at increasing competitiveness of major ports by creating value for the trade through reduced logistics costs as also by reassessing the capacity of the berths based on the expected performance of the berth equipments and vessels derived from performance norms. Currently performance norms are not being used optimally to improve productivity at many major ports.

India’s 12 major ports — Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) —  handle approximately 61 percent of the country’s total cargo traffic.

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