The country's economy and exports may be growing. The prospects may be bright, but the growth can be more than one basic physical constraint. The handling capacity of ports. Most of the 12 major Indian ports are operating at the full capacity. Any further growth in foreign trade can come once the capacity increases.

Since the capacity is not increasing, the ports are not seeing much increase in traffic either. Most of the ports registered low growth last year. Mumbai port traffic actually fell by 6.3 per cent. Other ports like Vizag grew at 4.4 per cent, Tuticorin by 8.7 per cent and Cochin by 9.2 per cent.

The highest growth but on low volume was by Calcutta at 31.5 per cent while New Mangalore grew by 22.7 per cent.