The State Government has set up Gujarat Maritime Board - the first autonomous Board in 1982 to develop, administer and regulate the Gujarat non-major ports. Year on year, Govt has been taking initiatives to take the maritime sector of the state to the pinnacles of excellence.

The Gujarat Ports have been at the forefront of port sector development in the country in terms of policy, planning and implementation. The BOOT policy for the Port sector was stipulated in 1997 which resulted in first private sector port development in the country. Mundra, Dahej and Hazira are the ports that came up immediately after the BOOT Policy. This along with later port investments is in the range of more than INR 35,000 crores realised till 2016.

Adequate expansion of maritime capabilities has made Gujarat the leading state with best developed maritime state in India. The volume of cargo handled by the Gujarat ports have been steadily rising and so has the capacity at the various ports.

Capacity Scenarios

The share of GMB ports from total non-major ports of India is about 72% and Gujarat non-major Ports handled 32% share of total national cargo in 2014-15, up from 3% in 1982.State Govt has successfully developed private ports at Pipavav, Mundra,Dahej,Hazira.

Gujarat ports’ total capacity is that of 466 MMTPA in 2015-16. It is estimated to increase to about more than 864 MMTPA in 2020. This includes capacities at all private sector, joint sector ports and private and captive jetties. The major capacity addition is in the form of expansion of existing ports, development and expansion of Captive jetties and Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) facilities along with development of Greenfield ports. The capacity utilization ratio at Gujarat ports has remained around 73% since last 3 years.

There are total 10 operational shipbuilding yards in the state with the capacity of 1.11 million DWT. Major operational shipyards are ABG Shipyard at Dahej and Magdalla with capacity of 80,000 DWT followed by Pipavav shipyards, L&T Shipyard at Hazira. Apart from these, there are many shipyard projects under the implementation stage. Gujarat is strongly emerging as a new shipbuilding destination in South Asia with many projects in pipeline. The Shipbuilding Policy 2010 of Gujarat maintains share of 60% i.e. 3 million DWT of National target (5 million DWT) in Shipbuilding/repair market.