Mormugao port workforce shrunk by nearly half since 2021 with 679 posts vacant

Panaji: Mormugao Port Authority had 679 vacancies against a sanctioned strength of 1,512 posts as of March, with its actual workforce having shrunk from 1,408 employees in April 2021 to just 833, a reduction of nearly 41% in five years.

Data tabled in the Rajya Sabha this week paints a picture of a port operating at barely 55% of its sanctioned strength, with vacancies consistently outpacing recruitment across every year since 2021.

The recruitment numbers are stark. In the five-and-a-half years between 2020-21 and March, Mormugao port filled just 24 posts on a regular basis and 45 on a contract or outsourced basis. This amounts to a combined recruitment of 69 individuals against hundreds of vacancies over a five-year period. In the current financial year up to March 1, only one regular and one contract post have been filled.

Despite the staffing constraints, the port handled 19.3 million tonnes of total traffic in the current financial year up to Feb 2026, with an average turnaround time for a cargo vessel of 66 hours and an output of 20,030 tonnes per ship berth day.

The sanctioned strength itself has been progressively reduced from 2,447 in April 2021 to 1,512 by March this year, suggesting the port has been systematically downsizing its workforce on paper even as operational demands continue. The sharpest single-year drop in sanctioned strength occurred between April 2024 and April 2025, when it fell from 2,034 to 1,577. This drop coincided with the port heavily turning to public-private partnership agreements to commercialise the berths and cargo handling operations.

Of the 833 employees currently in position, the largest contingent is in the engineering (mechanical) department with 215 staff, followed by cargo handling labour with 180, traffic department with 85, and civil engineering with 92 employees. The vigilance department, notably, has just one person on its rolls.

Minister of ports Sarbananda Sonowal said that recruitment procedures complied with all reservation policies and that no individual complaints regarding recruitment or irregular posting practices had been received since 2021.