The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways notified Deendayal (Kandla), Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva), Paradip and Mundra as India’s first four mega ports on 25 September 2026 under the Indian Ports Act, 2025. The notification, issued as S.O. 5303(E), took effect on publication in the Gazette of India and marks the formal start of the mega port era in India. Three of the four are government owned major ports, while Mundra in Gujarat is the only private port in the list and also India’s largest port by cargo volume.
What Is a Mega Port?
A mega port in India is a major port or any other port that the Central Government classifies as a mega port under Section 73 of the Indian Ports Act, 2025 after it meets fixed cargo benchmarks. The tag does not change the legal nature of the port. A major port stays a major port and a non major port stays a non major port, and each continues under its existing law and administration.
The mega port tag is a recognition of scale and efficiency. The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways uses it to identify high capacity gateways that handle a very large share of India’s foreign trade. Around 95 percent of India’s trade by volume and about 70 percent by value moves by sea, so a small group of very large ports has a direct effect on logistics cost, export competitiveness and supply security.
Statutory Basis Under Section 73 of the Indian Ports Act, 2025
The Indian Ports Act, 2025 (Act No. 27 of 2025) received assent on 21 August 2025 and replaced the century old Indian Ports Act, 1908. The new law consolidates port law, promotes integrated port development and aligns Indian rules with global norms on safety, pollution control and digital governance. The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways is the nodal ministry for its implementation. The Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways is Sarbananda Sonowal (as of October 2026).
Section 73 defines a mega port as a major port or a port other than a major port classified as such by the Central Government. The detailed benchmarks were notified on 30 July 2026 after consultation with state governments. Major ports were notified under Section 73(2) and other ports under Section 73(3) through the September 2026 notification signed by Joint Secretary Praveen P Nair.
The qualifying rule is simple and uses the cargo of the preceding financial year. A bulk port must have handled at least 150 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of cargo. A container port must have handled at least 7.5 million TEUs. TEU stands for Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit and is explained in a later section. For ports that handle both bulk and container cargo, container boxes are converted into weight using the method adopted by that port. Total throughput includes export, import and coastal cargo in all forms, including dry bulk, liquid bulk, break bulk and containerised cargo, and transshipped cargo is counted in a way that avoids double counting as far as possible.
The procedure adds speed with stability. A port can be declared a mega port within 90 days of meeting the benchmark. The status remains valid for five years even if throughput falls below the limit during that period. A review takes place after five years. The classification does not shift control from the Centre to a state or from a state to the Centre.
The First Four Mega Ports at a Glance
The September 2026 notification names two mega ports on the west coast in Gujarat, one container gateway near Mumbai in Maharashtra and one bulk gateway on the east coast in Odisha. Paradip is the only mega port on the east coast. Deendayal and Mundra give Gujarat two mega ports on the Arabian Sea side, while Jawaharlal Nehru Port anchors the Nhava Sheva cluster that serves the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and the northern hinterland.
| Port and Location | State and Coast | Legal Type | Core Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mundra Port, Kutch district | Gujarat, West coast | Port other than a major port, operated by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) | Largest port in India by cargo volume, first Indian port to cross 200.7 MMT in FY 2024 to 25, largest container handler |
| Deendayal Port, Kandla, Gulf of Kutch | Gujarat, West coast | Major port under the Centre | Energy and bulk hub, crossed 150.16 MMT in FY 2024 to 25, also known as Kandla port |
| Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), Nhava Sheva, Navi Mumbai | Maharashtra, West coast | Major port under the Centre | Main container gateway, handled 7.05 million TEUs in calendar year 2024, full form is Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust |
| Paradip Port, Jagatsinghpur, near Mahanadi mouth | Odisha, East coast | Major port under the Centre | Leading state owned bulk port, handled 156.45 MMT in FY 2025 to 26, only mega port on the east coast |
India has 12 major ports and more than 200 non major ports. Major ports are administered by the Centre and governed under the Major Port Authorities Act, 2021. Non major ports are administered by the respective state maritime boards and state governments. The mega port list therefore cuts across this divide. It places three central major ports and one state regulated private port under one performance label without merging their legal systems.
Mundra Port Profile and Private Operator Role
Mundra Port in Gujarat answers the high volume query on which state hosts India’s biggest commercial port. The port is located at Mundra in Kutch district on the Gulf of Kutch and is operated by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ), India’s largest private port operator. APSEZ operates 15 domestic ports across seven maritime states and also runs terminals abroad. Mundra is its flagship and is described as India’s largest commercial port.
Mundra began operations in 1998 as a private port under the Gujarat government and grew into a deep draft, all weather facility with 27 berths, single point moorings for crude, and dedicated terminals for containers, dry bulk, liquid cargo, LPG, LNG and automobiles. The port connects to the national rail grid through the 64 kilometre Mundra to Adipur double track line and to roads through State Highway 48 and National Highway 8A. The adjoining Mundra Special Economic Zone, spread over more than 8,000 hectares, combines a multi product zone, free trade and warehousing zone and domestic industrial area in one port led cluster.
The numbers explain the mega tag. Mundra handled 200.7 MMT in FY 2024 to 25, the first time any Indian port crossed 200 MMT in one year. Its installed capacity is about 264 MMT. Its container terminals handled about 8.5 million TEUs of capacity level traffic and over 7.4 million TEUs in actual throughput in recent years, which is more than one third of India’s container cargo. The port therefore qualifies comfortably on both the bulk and container logic and anchors western India’s trade with the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
JNPT Nhava Sheva Container Profile
Jawaharlal Nehru Port answers two frequent queries, the full form of JNPT and the location of Nhava Sheva port. JNPT stands for Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, now administered as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority. The port is located at Sheva in Navi Mumbai in Raigad district of Maharashtra, on the eastern shore of the Arabian Sea across from Mumbai. The site uses land from the villages of Nhava and Sheva, so Nhava Sheva is the common geographic name and JNPT is the institutional name. The port code used in trade documents is INNSA1.
JNPT opened on 26 May 1989 and was notified under the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963. It was built as an all weather tidal port to ease pressure on Mumbai Port and quickly became the main container gateway for Maharashtra and western India. The port now has five container terminals, including Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), Gateway Terminals India (GTI), Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals (BMCT), Nhava Sheva India Gateway Terminal (NSIGT) and Nhava Sheva Freeport Terminal (NSFT), with private operators such as DP World and APM Terminals working alongside the port authority under public private partnership. JNPT was the first major port to move fully to the landlord model, in which the public authority owns the land and basic breakwaters while private firms build and run terminals.
Container traffic is the core of JNPT. The port handled 6.05 million TEUs in FY 2022 to 23 and a record 7.05 million TEUs in calendar year 2024, operating at more than 90 percent of its then capacity of about 7.6 million TEUs. Expansion through the second phase of BMCT and the upgrade of the Freeport Terminal is expected to lift total capacity to about 10.4 million TEUs by 2027, which would place JNPT among the world’s top 30 container ports. The World Bank Container Port Performance Index 2025 placed JNPT at rank 22, close to Singapore at 21 and ahead of Shanghai at 23. Main exports through JNPT include textiles, carpets, sporting goods, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and meat products, while main imports include machinery, plastics, electrical goods, vegetable oils and non ferrous metals. The port links to 30 container freight stations and 52 inland container depots across the country.
Paradip Port Bulk Profile
Paradip Port answers the query on which state hosts Paradip. The port is located at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha, near the mouth of the Mahanadi river on the Bay of Bengal. It lies about 210 nautical miles south of Kolkata and 260 nautical miles north of Visakhapatnam. It is the only major port in Odisha and the only mega port on the east coast.
The history of Paradip is part of Odisha’s modern identity. Biju Patnaik, then Chief Minister of Odisha, is regarded as the founder of the port. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone on 3 January 1962. The Centre took over management from the Odisha government on 1 June 1965. The vessel INS Investigator made the maiden berthing on 12 March 1966, and the port was declared open the same day. On 18 April 1966 the Centre declared Paradip the eighth major port of India, the first major port on the east coast commissioned after Independence. The port is now run by the Paradip Port Authority under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
Paradip is a bulk cargo leader. It handles dry bulk such as coal, iron ore and fertilisers, liquid bulk including crude and POL products, and some containerised cargo. It serves Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and the wider eastern hinterland and feeds steel and energy supply chains. In FY 2023 to 24 the port handled 145.38 MMT, the highest among major ports that year. In FY 2025 to 26 it handled 156.45 MMT, its highest ever total and a clear pass over the 150 MMT mega port line. The port operates 17 cargo berths, three single point moorings and one roll on roll off jetty, with an approach channel depth of about 17.1 metres.
Deendayal Kandla Identity
Deendayal Port answers three common queries, the state of Deendayal port, the new name of Kandla and the other name of Kandla port. The port is located at Kandla in Kutch district of Gujarat on the Gulf of Kutch. Kandla is the old name and Deendayal is the new official name, given in honour of Deendayal Upadhyaya. The port is run by the Deendayal Port Authority and has the trade code for Kandla.
The port was commissioned in the 1950s after Partition, when Karachi went to Pakistan and India needed a new western gateway to replace it. Kandla was developed as a central government major port and grew into the energy and grain hub of western India. It handles crude, petroleum products, chemicals, fertilisers, coal, salt, timber, foodgrains and containers. The port has separate dry, liquid and container facilities at Kandla, Vadinar and Tuna Tekra.
Deendayal reclaimed the top rank among major ports in FY 2024 to 25 with 150.16 MMT, a growth of 13 percent over the previous year, the fastest among major ports that year. The port plans to raise throughput toward 170 MMT with a berthing on arrival system, three new oil jetties, a single buoy mooring and two product jetties at Vadinar, plus a new cargo terminal outside Kandla creek that will add about 135 million tonnes per annum. The port also hosts India’s first port based green hydrogen plant of 1 MW capacity at Kandla and a planned 1.5 kilometre e methanol facility whose foundation was laid in September 2026. A proposed shipbuilding complex of about ₹ 30,000 crore over 6,000 acres aims to build 32 new ships and repair 50 ships each year.
What Is TEU and FEU in Shipping?
TEU stands for Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit. It is the standard box used to count container capacity and equals one 20 foot long container that is 8 feet wide and 8 feet 6 inches high. FEU stands for Forty Foot Equivalent Unit and equals one 40 foot container or two TEUs.
The unit makes ports and ships comparable. A terminal rated at 7.5 million TEUs can in theory hold 7.5 million 20 foot boxes or 3.75 million 40 foot boxes in a year. JNPT and Mundra are measured in TEUs because containers dominate their traffic, while Paradip and Deendayal are measured in weight because bulk dominates theirs. MMT stands for Million Metric Tonnes and counts actual weight of all cargo, including dry bulk, liquid bulk, break bulk and the weight of containerised goods. The mega port rule therefore uses TEUs for container gateways and MMT for bulk gateways, with a clear conversion method for mixed ports.
Major Ports Framework and Sagarmala Project Context
India’s sea ports fall into two administrative groups. The 12 major ports are owned by the Union Government and managed by port authorities under central law. The 200 plus non major ports are owned by coastal states and managed by state maritime boards. Examples of major ports include Deendayal, Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar at Ennore, V O Chidambaranar at Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Syama Prasad Mookerjee at Kolkata including Haldia, and Jawaharlal Nehru Port. Mundra is a non major port under Gujarat but matches major ports in scale.
The Sagarmala Project provides the policy frame for this growth. The Union Cabinet approved the concept on 25 March 2015 and the Prime Minister released the National Perspective Plan on 14 April 2016. The programme promotes port led development through four pillars, port modernisation, port connectivity, port led industrialisation and coastal community development, plus coastal shipping and inland waterways. About 839 projects worth about ₹ 5.79 lakh crore have been identified, with 272 projects completed by March 2025. Coastal shipping traffic has grown by about 118 percent in a decade and inland waterway cargo has grown sharply from a low base. Major ports together handled a record 915.17 MMT in FY 2025 to 26, with average turnaround time improving to 48.84 hours from 52.87 hours in FY 2021 to 22. Sagarmala 2.0, backed by about ₹ 85,482 crore, aims to catalyse about ₹ 3.6 lakh crore in investment and lift the combined share of coastal shipping and inland waterways from 6 percent toward 12 percent by 2047.
Transshipment and Upcoming Greenfield Mega Ports
A transshipment port in India is a hub where large mother ships unload boxes that smaller feeder ships then carry to other Indian or foreign ports. At present about 75 percent of India’s transshipped cargo is handled outside India, mainly at Colombo, Singapore and Klang, with Colombo alone taking about 45 percent of that offshore share. This routing costs foreign exchange and sailing time. India is therefore building domestic transshipment capacity at Vizhinjam in Kerala, Cochin, Vadhavan in Maharashtra and Galathea Bay in Great Nicobar.
Vadhavan is the next likely mega port on the west coast. The Union Cabinet has approved a major port at Vadhavan in Dahanu in Maharashtra on the landlord model at a cost of about ₹ 65,544 crore. The site has a natural draft of about 20 metres and can take container ships of 16,000 to 25,000 TEUs. JNPT is linked to the Vadhavan JNPT cluster in long term plans that aim for more than 300 million tonnes per annum per cluster.
Galathea Bay is the strategic eastern answer. The International Container Transshipment Port at Galathea Bay in Great Nicobar lies about 40 nautical miles from the East West shipping route and has natural depth above 20 metres. Phase 1 is planned for commissioning in 2028 with about 4 to 5.6 million TEUs, rising to about 14.2 to 16 million TEUs in the final stage by the late 2050s. The Union Government has notified the Galathea Bay port as a major port and entrusted implementation to Kamarajar Port Limited. The project is part of the holistic development of Great Nicobar, which also includes a greenfield international airport, a 450 MVA gas and solar power plant and a township over 16,610 hectares.
Key Takeaways
- The first four mega ports notified on 25 September 2026 are Deendayal (Kandla), JNPT Nhava Sheva, Paradip and Mundra under Section 73 of the Indian Ports Act, 2025.
- A bulk port needs 150 MMT annual throughput and a container port needs 7.5 million TEUs to qualify, with mega status valid for five years.
- Mundra in Gujarat is the only private mega port and the largest port in India, after crossing 200.7 MMT in FY 2024 to 25.
- JNPT in Maharashtra means Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust at Nhava Sheva, Navi Mumbai, and it handled a record 7.05 million TEUs in 2024.
- Paradip in Odisha is the only mega port on the east coast and handled 156.45 MMT in FY 2025 to 26, while Deendayal in Gujarat is the new name of Kandla port.
- The Indian Ports Act, 2025 replaced the Indian Ports Act, 1908 and was supported by the Sagarmala Project, launched in 2015 for port led development.
