New Mangalore is an all weather port on the famous Malabar Coast at Panambur near Mangalore City in the south west coast State of Karnataka of India, with the deepest inner harbour on the south west coast of India. It is the only major port in Karnataka and the seventh largest port in India by volume of cargo handled at over 40 million tonnes per year. It is operated by New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) and lies roughly midway between the former Portuguese colony of Goa and the Port of Cochin near the southern tip of India. The distance between the ports of New Mangalore and Mormugao is 170 nautical miles to the north, and 191 nautical miles south to the Port of Cochin.

The New Mangalore Port Design Project was set up in 1962, with the maritime construction works started in 1968. The New Mangalore Port, the only major port of Karnataka State was completed on 4th May 1974, and was formally inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, on 11th January 1975. The provisions of the Indian Major Port Trusts of 1963 were applied to New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) with effect from 1st April 1980. Since then, the port has been functioning as a centre of activities for importers and exporters of this region. There have been eight Chairmen of the port in the 42 years of operation from 1980, each Chairman taking the post for four or five years e.g. Capt. R. Ramkumar during 15th April 1997 to 30th April 2001. The present Chairman is Shri A. V. Ramana, who began his tenure on 11th June 2019.

Over the years, the port throughput has grown from only a few million tonnes in the early 1990s to 26.6 million tonnes in year 2003/04, 35.0 million tonnes in year 2017/18, and 40.5 million tonnes in year 2018/19 and 39.15 million tonnes in year 2019/20. Large increases in iron ore for the 3.5 million tonnes per year Kudremukh Iron Ore Co. Ltd. (KIOCL) pellet plant, coal, LPG, cement, limestone, potash, phosphates, urea, wheat and many other commodities have contributed to a huge increase in cargo throughput. Container throughput in the year 2019/20 totalled 150,000 TEU, up from 89,000 TEU in year 2016/17. The Chairman of NMPT, Shri A. V. Ramana, thanked the port managers, staff, dockers and stevedores, trades union leaders, trustees and port shipping users for their great support and co-operation, and looked forward to many more increasingly profitable years.

The major commodities exported in the port are iron ore fines, concentrates and pellets, limestone, petroleum, oil products and lubricants, granite, potash, grain, maize, pig iron and steel, rock phosphates, urea, clay, sulphur, logs, bentonite, coffee, cashew nuts, yellow peas, and container cargoes, with the major imports being coal, coke, crude oil, oil products, timber, wood pulp, liquid ammonia, phosphoric acid, fertilisers, vegetable and edible oils, liquid chemicals, and container cargoes. Coal imports in the year 2005/06 totalled 1.1 million tonnes, rising to the 2011/12 total of 4.02 million tonnes, and rising again to 6.91 million tonnes in the following year, and to 15.0 million tonnes in the year 2019/20. It is the main reason for the port’s expanding success story, with 4.0 million tonnes of coal handled by NMPT each year destined for the Udupi Power Station of 1,200 megawatt power, which was sold by Lanco Infratech to Adani Power in May 2015.

HISTORY OF MANGALORE