According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, cargo volume handled by 12 major ports rose by 5.03 per cent to 413.747 million metric tonnes (MMT) in September.
The Ministry in its 20th Maritime States Development Council (MSDC) meeting held recently, discussed the implementation of a State Ranking Framework and a Port Ranking System to foster healthy competition.
For April-August period, National Waterways transported 56.57 million metric tons of goods, representing a 4.54% increase over the same time the previous year.
According to the government, 3,39,768.74 MT of cargo were transported via National Waterways-1 and Inland Water Transit & Trade Routes along the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route.
According to the ministry, several new and emerging challenges were also addressed, including the establishment of Places of Refuge (PoR) for ships in distress and the development of Radioactive Detection Equipment (RDE) infrastructure at ports to enhance security.
