The volume of containers handled by major ports in India grew 11 percent year-over-year in the April-February period, the Indian Ports Association said in a statement.
Total volume for the first 11 months of fiscal 2010-11 totaled 6.9 million 20-foot equivalent units, compared with 6.2 million TEUs in the same period in 2009-10.
The tonnage of container traffic climbed 12.5 percent to 103 million tons from 91 million tons.
Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva), the country's largest container port, handled 3.9 million TEUs, up 6 percent from 3.7 million TEUs a year earlier.
"Based on current volume trends, we are well on track to surpass the previous fiscal year's record throughput of 4.06 million TEUs," a Nehru official said.
Traffic at Chennai jumped about 30 percent to 1.4 million TEUs from 1.09 million TEUs.
Other smaller container ports also increased their throughput numbers on a year-on-year basis. Kolkata handled 481,000 TEUs, up from 459,000 TEUs. Tuticorin moved 421,000 TEUs compared with 397,000 TEUs. Volume at Cochin rose to 286,000 TEUs from 265,000 TEUs.
Despite a significant turnaround in container traffic, overall cargo movements through major ports were somewhat sluggish during April-February, growing a mere 1 percent to 514.6 million tons from 509 million tons.
Kandla was the top cargo handler with throughput of 75 million tons, followed by Visakhapatnam with 61.5 million tons.
For fiscal 2009-10, India's ocean trade via major ports was estimated at 561 million tons, up nearly 6 percent from 530.5 million tons the previous year. Container traffic increased 4.3 percent to 6.87 million TEUs from 6.59 million TEUs.
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