Bridging the port and transport infrastructure gap: A roadmap for Eastern India’s economic ascent

“Eastern India and the Northeast need to display their potential as India is progressing towards Viksit Bharat.” What Prime Minister Narendra Modi said recently at the Advantage Assam 2.0 Investment and Infrastructure Summit 2025 in Guwahati resonates strongly with the aspirations of the people of this region. The investment commitments secured by Assam (Rs 5.18 lakh crore), Odisha (Rs 16.73 lakh crore) and West Bengal (Rs 4.4 lakh crore) at their respective business summits underline a critical imperative – logistics and transport infrastructure development and upgradation must be a top priority to boost investors’ confidence and position the region strongly in the journey towards Viksit Bharat.

Ports sans deep draft – The missing link 

A state’s industry-friendliness is best measured by the strength of its port and shipping infrastructure. Eastern India faces a persistent disadvantage due to inadequate port facilities and high logistics costs. Large vessels cannot berth and sail out from the Kolkata Port, as it is a low draft riverine port. Instead, cargo must be transported via feeder vessels from ships anchored at the sea mouth—a costly and inefficient process.

Haldia Port, on the other hand, continues to act mainly as a feeder port to Visakhapatnam Port and Paradip Port, as bigger vessels prefer to berth at those ports. In fact, Kolkata and Haldia ports witnessed an 8.7% decrease in combined cargo volumes in the first half of FY24 as a result of diversion of coking coal cargo from these low draft ports to the neighbouring deep draft Paradip and Dhamra ports.

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