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Major Ports of India:

India has about 5,600 km of main coastline serviced by 12 major ports and 187 minor working ports. These twelve major Indian Ports handles large volume of cargo and container traffic.
Major ports on the West Coast of India are Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva), Kandla, Mormugao, New Mangalore and Cochin.
Major ports on the East Coast of India are Kolkata-Haldia, Paradip, Vishakapatnam, Chennai, Ennore and Tuticorin.



Mumbai Port - It is the biggest port in the country. It is a natural harbour. It handles more than one-fifth of the total traffic of the ports. It largely handles petroleum products and dry cargo.
Nhava Sheva Port - It is also known as Jawaharlal Nehru Port. It is the largest container port in India. This port has large berthing facilities, cargo handling equipment and most modern operational techniques. It is situated at Konkan area across the Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. It handles large volume of international container traffic and domestic cargo traffic. Major exports from this port are textiles, sporting goods, carpets, textile machinery, boneless meat, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Main imports from this port are main imports are chemicals, machinery, plastics, electrical machinery, vegetable oils and aluminium and other non-ferrous metals.
Kandla Port - It is a tidal port having a free trade zone. It is located on the Gulf of Kutch in the district of Kutch of Gujarat. Main exports from this port are grains, salt and textiles and imports are petroleum, chemicals and iron.
Mormugao Port (Goa) - It is a natural harbour of India located in Goa. It is one of the leading iron ores exporter port in India.
New Mangalore Port - It is located in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. The major commodities exported through the port are iron ore concentrates & pellets, iron ore fines, manganese, granite stones, coffee, cashew and containerized cargo. The major imports of the port are crude and petroleum products, LPG, wood pulp, timber logs, finished fertilizers, liquid ammonia, phosphoric acid, other liquid chemicals, containerized cargo, etc.
Cochin Port - It is a natural harbour and major port on the Arabian Sea. It largely handles petroleum products, fertilisers, cement and edible oils.
Kolkata-Haldia Port - It is a riverine port situated near the Hooghly River in the state of West Bengal. It is the largest terminal port in South Asia. It largely handles chemicals, coals, petrochemicals and oils.
Paradip Port - It is an artificial, deep-water port on the East coast of India in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha. It is situated at the confluence of river Mahanadi and the Bay of Bengal. It largely handles iron ore, coal and general cargo.
Visakhapatnam Port - It is located on the south-east coast of India in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the deepest landlocked and protected port of India. It has been mainly developed to export iron ore to Japan. It also handles petroleum productd, crude oil, coal and dry cargo. It is undergoing a modernisation and expansion program aimed at increasing its capacity to 130 million tonnes by 2016-17.
Chennai Port - It is one of the oldest port on the east coast of India. It is a hub port for cars, big containers. iron ore and petroleum products.
Ennore Port - Ennore Port was originally conceived as a satellite port to the Chennai Port, primarily to handle thermal coal to meet the requirement of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). It lies on the north-eastern corner of the state of Tamil Nadu. It largely handles thermal coal, iron ore, petroleum products and cars.
Tuticorin Port - Tuticorin Port is an artificial deep-sea harbour. It is the second-largest port in Tamil Nadu and fourth-largest container terminal in India. It largely handles salt, coal, edible oils, food grains, fertilisers, petroleum products and dry cargo.