Question

Which of the following is the biggest and busiest port for exports?
a)Kandla
b)Hooghly
c)Mumbai
d)Chennai

Answer 1

Hint:India has a long coastline of 7516 km and there are ports on both the sides of the peninsular plateau .Water is one of the cheapest ways of transport. Around 90% of India’s trade by volume and 70% by value is done through waterways.

Complete Answer:India has 12 major ports and around 200 minor ports. Since the west coast of India is a submergent coast, it has more ports than the east coast. Let us look at the options given to us-

Option(A) Kandla port is situated at the Gulf of Kutch and receives large quantities of petroleum and petroleum products.

Option (B) Hooghly port is located in Kolkata and was built by the British. It exports products like steel, cotton ,tea etc and manages cargo that arrives from Australia and South East Asia.

Option (C) Mumbai port is a natural harbour and is the largest port by size and shipping traffic. Handling 20% of India’s foreign trade, it is 20km long and 6-10km wide. It has 54 berths and has the largest oil terminal in the country.
Therefore, the correct answer is option (C ).

Option (D ) Chennai port has been in operation since 1881 and is situated in the Coromandel coast. It is the second largest port in India and handles 100million metric tonnes of cargo every year.

Note:East of Mumbai has the Jawaharlal Nehru Port . Also known as Nhava Seva this port was built to ease the load on Mumbai port. This is the largest container port in India.