IN Brief:
- PSA has opened 16 additional terminal gates and a dedicated road connection at Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals.
- BMCT handled approximately 978,000 TEU in the first seven months of 2026, 12% more than a year earlier.
- Rail, road, and terminal capacity are being expanded together as JNPA absorbs higher container volumes.
Sixteen new terminal gates and a dedicated road connection have been added at Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals as PSA International works to prevent rising container volumes from turning into longer truck queues at Jawaharlal Nehru Port.
BMCT is now JNPA’s largest container terminal, with annual capacity of approximately 4.8 million TEU following the start of Phase 2 operations. The terminal accounts for roughly half of the port’s overall container-handling capacity, increasing the pressure on the road and rail systems that move boxes beyond the quay.
PSA’s latest work is aimed squarely at that landside interface. More berth capacity, cranes, and yard space can increase the number of containers handled from ships, but each box still has to reach a truck or train before the terminal can free space for the next one.
The additional gates and road connection are intended to improve traffic flow, reduce truck turnaround times, and smooth export movements into the terminal. They follow a period of rising throughput at BMCT and across JNPA more broadly.
BMCT handled approximately 978,000 TEU during the first seven months of 2026, compared with around 872,000 TEU in the same period last year, an increase of about 12%. JNPA throughput from April to July reached roughly three million TEU, 14% higher year on year, despite a slight reduction in containership calls.
Higher throughput with fewer calls suggests larger cargo exchanges around individual vessels. Instead of traffic being spread evenly across more ships, terminals can face sharper peaks as larger parcels of containers arrive and depart around the same berth windows.
Those peaks are felt immediately at the gate. Export trucks need to meet vessel cut-offs, import boxes need collection slots, and drivers require enough road and terminal capacity to complete the job without losing hours in queues.
Delays quickly spread beyond the port perimeter. A truck held at the terminal may miss a later collection, while exporters can lose a sailing if cargo fails to reach the gate before the revised cut-off. Factories working to fixed production schedules are particularly exposed when inbound containers remain inside the terminal longer than planned.
PSA has also been developing connectivity around BMCT. A regional KIX service introduced last month links Nhava Sheva and Mundra with Khor Fakkan in the UAE, adding another routing option for cargo moving between India and Middle Eastern transhipment networks.
Rail capacity is developing alongside those ocean links. Dedicated freight-corridor operations are improving access between the port and northern India, while BMCT has handled double-stack container trains designed to move more boxes within a single train path.
Double-stack rail can increase throughput substantially where infrastructure permits it. The benefit depends on suitable clearances, terminal cranes, inland handling capacity, locomotives, and train paths, so the efficiency gain only survives if both ends of the movement are equipped for the extra height and volume.
The same systems logic applies across the terminal. Port capacity is often presented as one large annual TEU figure, but daily performance depends on berth windows, crane productivity, yard density, customs procedures, gate appointments, truck supply, rail paths, and inland terminals operating at compatible speeds.
If one element falls behind, extra capacity elsewhere can merely relocate the queue. More quayside throughput can create larger truck peaks; a faster road link can move congestion to an inland junction; additional trains have limited value if the receiving terminal lacks cranes or storage space.
JNPA is managing that coordination problem while container demand across western India continues to grow. Manufacturing investment, export activity, Middle East trade, and potential spillover from competing ports are increasing the importance of dependable links between the waterfront and inland industrial regions.
The Phase 2 expansion has already changed BMCT’s physical scale. The next challenge is to make the surrounding transport system behave like part of the same project rather than infrastructure that catches up after the terminal has filled.
Sixteen gates are a relatively small addition beside a 4.8 million TEU terminal, but they sit at one of its most sensitive operating points. Every box leaving by road has to pass through that interface, and small delays repeated across thousands of daily vehicle movements accumulate quickly.
Port investments tend to attract attention when cranes arrive or berths open. Truck turnaround, gate capacity, road access, and inland rail connections are less photogenic, but they decide whether those expensive maritime assets produce reliable supply-chain capacity once vessels begin discharging larger volumes.
BMCT’s recent growth means the landside system is already being tested. If throughput continues increasing, PSA’s latest work will be judged in minutes saved at the gate rather than by the number of lanes added on paper.
