Ports & Waterways

For decades India's ports were congested and under-invested, adding days and cost to trade. The turnaround came with Sagarmala, launched in 2015 — a ₹5.8 lakh crore programme of some 840 projects to modernise ports, improve their rail and road links, and build coastal industrial hubs. Major-ports cargo capacity roughly doubled over the decade to about 1,630 MMTPA.

Two projects stand out. Vizhinjam in Kerala — India's first deep-water transshipment port, with an 18-metre natural draft on the busy east–west shipping lane — lets India capture container traffic that once went to Colombo or Singapore. The ₹76,220 crore Vadhavan greenfield port in Maharashtra will be among India's largest. Inland waterways also grew fast, moving a record 145.5 million tonnes in FY25.

India's coastline has major ports run by the central government alongside a growing set of large private ports (like Mundra). Cargo capacity has been expanded and turnaround times sharply cut under the Sagarmala programme, which links ports to road and rail so goods move faster. A parallel push develops inland waterways — shifting bulk cargo onto rivers like the Ganga through the National Waterways, far cheaper and greener than trucking.

Port capacity has roughly doubled to about 2,762 MMTPA and average ship turnaround has fallen from 93 hours to under 50 hours — now among the world's better rates. The next phase, Sagarmala 2.0, targets deeper mega-ports, more coastal shipping and green-hydrogen hubs at ports, while inland-waterway cargo (already up several-fold) is pushed further to take trucks off the road.

The next step is turning capacity into speed — easing congestion and last-mile rail links to bring India's logistics cost (around 13–14% of GDP) down further.

~800 → 1,630 MMTPA major-ports capacity (2014→2025). ₹5.8 lakh crore Sagarmala, ~840 projects. 1.65 billion tonnes total cargo (FY24). 145.5 MT inland-waterways cargo (FY25). Sources: MoPSW, Sagarmala, IWAI.