World's Largest Ship, As Long As Empire State Building To Skip India

NEW DELHI: The country's failure to draw larger cargo ships due to lacking port infrastructure poses a threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambition to make India the world's factory.

Most of India's harbours aren't deep enough to accommodate ships like the 400-meter-long Ever Alot, the largest boxship in the world with a capacity of more than 24,000 20-foot equivalent units. The Ever A lot, which can rival the Empire State Building in length, recently paid visits to Malaysia and its neighbour Sri Lanka.

The 17-meter draught required for such vessels to sail is absent from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India's largest state-run container handling facility. The Mundra Port, run by Gautam Adani's business, a billionaire, has declared it can manage the behemoth but hasn't been used yet. The largest vessel to have berthed there is the 17,292-TEU APL Raffles, which had 13,159 TEUs on board when it did so in January 2022.

Shailesh Garg, a director of Drewry Maritime Advisors, stated that "ultra-large ships offer economies of scale." However, simply enlarging the vessel won't help to speed up the transportation of products to and from the hinterland. He added that it is also necessary to improve the road and rail connections between ports and warehouses, companies, and stores.

According to a Reserve Bank of India report from 2022, poor shipping connectivity has made it difficult for India to integrate into the global value chain. According to the RBI, the nation scored 34% in the GVC participation index, compared to 45.9% for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has 10 members. According to a different report, Vietnam scored higher than 50% on the gauge.

Three years after Vietnam welcomed a ship of a comparable class, Mundra Port welcomed APL Raffles, demonstrating how Asia's third-largest economy risks lagging behind in the race for a larger proportion of commerce as companies depart from China. Mundra, which is ranked 48th in an index created by the World Bank Group and S&P Global Market Intelligence, is the highest-performing port in India.

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