The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) recently announced that the new South Red Sea (SRS) shipping service in the Red Sea would be extended to the Jeddah Islamic Port in western Saudi Arabia.
The Red Sea-based maritime route, operated by Emirates Shipping Line (ESL), will now connect the Jeddah port with the Mundra Port in Gujarat, as well as the Port of Djibouti, as per a Saudi Press Agency report.
Vessels operating on this route will carry about 2,144 TEUs of cargo, with the first ship to be the Panama-flagged An Hai (IMO: 9238155), which left for Djibouti from the Mundra Port on June 4.
ALSO READ | How Maersk's new FI2 maritime service will impact India-China trade
The move aims to boost Riyadh's connectivity and trade volume with India and Djibouti, especially with the three-month long war in the Gulf throwing the Strait of Hormuz in turmoil.
The Red Sea line, which lies along Saudi Arabia's western coast, is relatively safer for shipping despite the war.
As a result, the country plans to boost maritime activities in this crucial waterway, in line with the objectives of its National Transport and Logistics Strategy, which looks to position it as a global logistics hub linking Asia, Africa and Europe.
Notably, the Jeddah port is also well-connected with other key ports—such as the King Fahd Industrial Port in Yanbu, the Ain Sokhna Port in Egypt, and the Aqaba Port in Jordan—on Saudi Arabia's western corridor, which lies almost entirely on the Red Sea.
Why Mundra?
Operated by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), the Mundra Port in Gujarat also serves as a gateway to the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) rail network of high-speed cargo trains.
What this means is that cargo arriving via the SRS service gets fast, direct access into the National Capital Region (NCR) and other industrial regions in the vicinity.
This move is the latest example of the growing power of India's western ports amid the war, owing to their location, as well as their state-of-the-art facilities in line with global maritime standards.
India's Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) is also known to take periodic measures to help decongest the growing traffic at its ports, most recently seen in the examples of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai and the Vizhinjam Port in Thiruvananthapuram.
