PANJIM: The Mormugao Port Trust witnessed a 27% decline in iron ore exports for the year 2011-12 as compared to the previous year, bringing down the total traffic handled at the port by 22%. Revealing figures for the financial year 2011-12, Chairman of Mormugao Port Trust P Mara Pandiyan said that the decline was both due to internal problems like illegal mining as well as a global economic recession that all ports were facing. He however said that the operating income of the port increased by 4%. “Iron ore exports consist of about 80% traffic throughput at out port. During the year 2011-12, the port handled a total traffic of 39.00 million tonnes as against 50.02 million tonnes handled in 2010-11. Out of this, iron ore export was 29.37 million tonnes as against 40.63 million tonnes handled during the last year. The decline of iron ore export has brought down the total traffic by 22% during 2011-12 as compared to that of 2010-11, however operating income has increased by 4%,” the chairman informed. Pandiyan elaborated that the decline was due to the ban on exports of ore from Karnataka, restrictions on transportation of ore by local administrative officials from the mines to the offloading point, the ban on handling of dumps as well as the closure of several mines by the Goa State Pollution Control Board. “The Port has the capacity to handle 50-60 million tonnes of ore annually so the decrease in the export is because of reasons other than capacity,” Pandiyan said. Explaining the surge in revenues Pandiyan said: “Even though the number of vessels has decreased from 949 in 2010-11 to 785 in 2011-12 and despite reduction in traffic, the operating income per tonne has increased from Rs 74 to Rs 91 during 2011-12. Income per vessel has increased from Rs 10.37 lakh to Rs 12.76 lakh,” he said. Pandiyan however said that there was an increase in passenger arrivals through cruise ships and that he expects it to go up even further with the commissioning of a specialised passenger berth. “During the fiscal year just ended 22 cruise vessels called to the port with 19,650 passengers as against 21 vessels with 9,371 passengers during 2010-11. To attract more cruise liners and to help the economy grow, the construction of a berth with 450 mtrs length and 26.5 mtrs width specially meant for cruise vessels with a draft of 9.5 metres is nearing completion,” Pandiyan informed. Pandiyan also said that the MPT contributes 35% to the state GDP and 30% in terms of tax collections and that nearly three lakh households depend directly or indirectly in the economy of the port.