Mumbai Port has carved an unique niche for itself in the Indian commercial geography. The port has completed 135 years of dedicated service to the nation. For decades, Mumbai Port remained India's premier port. Even today, with the development of other ports in the neighborhood, it caters to about 11 % of the total sea borne handled by Major Ports of the country in terms of volume. It handles about 20 % of POL traffic and 21 % of General traffic handled by  Major Ports of India.

     The Port of Mumbai has long been the principal gateway of India. It lies midway (Latitude 18º 56.3' N, Longitude 72º 45.9' E) on the West coast of India and is gifted with a natural deep-water harbour of  400 sq. Kms. protected by mainland of Konkan on its east and island of Mumbai on its west. The deep waters in the harbour provide secure and ample shelter for shipping throughout the year. This gift of nature has been developed by the enterprise of men with vision and purpose, with the result that in the matter of natural facilities for shipping, Mumbai Port is one of the most fortunate amongst the world ports.

Performance Highlights : 2007-08

 

»	Traffic : The year 2007-2008 closed with a throughput of 57.04 million tonnes of cargo traffic comprising 32.38 million tonnes of imports and 24.66 million tonnes of exports as against 52.36 million tonnes in 2006-2007 comprising 31.09 million tonnes of imports and 21.27 million tonnes of exports.
»	Container Traffic : Mumbai Port handled 1.18 lakh TEUs in 2007-2008 as against 1.38 lakh TEUs handled during 2006-2007. The Port handled 779 ICD containers (TEUs) during the year 2007-2008 compared to 17164 ICD containers (TEUs) handled during last year.

There are three enclosed wet docks namely, Prince's, Victoria and Indira Dock, having a total area of 46.30 hectares and quayage of 7,776 meters inside the wet basin and 853 meters along the harbour wall. 

Oldest of the three is Prince's Dock, a semi-tidal dock, commissioned in 1880. It has 8 berths, each with a designed draft of 6.4 meters. 

The Victoria Dock, commissioned in 1888, is also a semi-tidal dock. It has 14 berths, each with a designed draft of 6.7 meters. 

Indira Dock was commissioned in 1914. It has an entrance lock, 228.6 meters long and 30.5 meters wide, through which vessels can enter or leave the dock at any state of tide. There are 21 berths inside the basin and 5 berths along the harbour wall. The draft inside the basin is around 9.1 meters. The depth of water inside the basin can be increased by 1.20  meters by impounding water. The draft at the harbour wall berths is around 7.0 meters. 

To the south of Indira Dock, along the extended arm, there are two open berths, Ballard Pier and Ballard Pier Extension, each of 244 meters length with a draft of 9.1 meters and 9.75 meters, respectively. Ballard Pier Extension berth handles passenger vessels and is equipped with a modern passenger terminal building. 

There are 4 jetties at Jawahar Dweep, to handle crude and POL tankers and an offshore berth at Pir Pau to handle liquid chemicals and some of the POL traffic. Fourth at Jawahar Dweep which was commissioned in 1984, can handle tankers with a maximum loaded draft of 12.20 meters and upto 1,25,000 displacement tonnes. Two jetties can receive tankers upto 70,000 displacement tonnes. The New Pir Pau jetty commissioned in December 1996 can handle tankers of 47,000 dwt with a maximum loaded draft of 11.1 meters.