Ports

India has a long coastline of around 7500 kilometers spread across nine coastal states. The classification of Indian ports is major, minor and intermediate ports. India is serviced by 13 major ports and 187 minor and intermediate ports. In major ports, there are 7 shipyards under the control of central government of India, 2 shipyards by state government and 19 privately owned shipyards.

Private sector participation in India’s port sector has been on the increase during the past one decade with the Government of India and few state governments taking several initiatives to encourage private investment in port development.

The private sector today plays a multitude of roles such as developing and operating terminals at major ports under Build Own Transfer (BOT) schemes, implementing Greenfield ports and port – rail connectivity projects and providing port support services.

In order to attract foreign investors, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy has been progressively liberalised, with 100% participation being allowed in the port sector With such an FDI policy in place, several foreign investors, such as DP World, PSA Corporation of Singapore, Portia Management Services of UK, IQ Martrade GmbH of Germany, and AP Moller-Maersk of Netherlands, have invested in the domestic ports sector. Besides, a number of private sector groups, such as Larsen &Toubro, Gammon India, Sical Logistics, ABG, JSW and JM Baxi, have also invested in terminals at the Major Ports.