Friday, January 14, 2011

Maritime Agenda 2010-2020 Launched
165000 Crore Rupees Investment Envisaged in Shipping Sector by 2020




The Minister of Shipping Shri G.K. Vasan today launched the Maritime Agenda 2010-2020, a perspective plan of the Shipping Ministry for the present decade. Launching the Maritime Agenda, the Minister talked about the goals set for the sector including:



· “To create a port capacity of around 3200 MT to handle the expected traffic of about 2500 MT by 2020.

· We want to bring our ports at par with the best international ports in terms of performance and capacity.

· We want to increase the tonnage under the Indian flag and Indian control and also the share of Indian ships in our EXIM trade.

· We want to promote coastal shipping as it will help in decongesting our roads and is environment friendly.

· We want to increase India’s share in global ship building to 5% from the present 1%.

· The share of Indian seafarers is between 6 to 7% in the global shipping industry. We want to increase it to atleast 9% by 2015.”



The Ministry envisages an estimated traffic of 2495 MMT in all ports including the non-metro ones. The total capacity of all these ports is expected to be 3280 MMT. The total proposed investments in major and non-major ports by 2020 is expected to be approximately 287000 crores and the total proposed investments in the shipping sector by 2020 – Rs. 165000 crores.



The Maritime Agenda projects a total traffic of 2494.95 million tonnes for all major and non-major ports taken together and a capacity of 3280.04 million tonnes. The proposed investments in ports by 2020 is expected to be 119449.41 crore and in non-major ports it is 167930.84 crore.



The agenda for the decade for the Ports are:

• Create Port capacity of 3200 M.T. for handling about 2500 M.T. of cargo

• Improve Port performance on par with the best in the world.

• Increase tonnage both under the Indian flag as well as Indian control.

• Increase Coastal Shipping and facilitate hassle-free multimodal transport

• Increase India’s share in global ship building to 5%.

• Promote use of the inland waterways for cargo movement

• Increase India’s share of seafarer to 9% of the global strength by 2015

• Implementation of the Port development projects

• Develop Two New Major Ports one each on east and west coasts.

• Full mechanisation of cargo handling and movement

• Major Ports to have draft of not less than 14 metres and hub ports 17 metres

• A new policy on dredging

• Identification and implementation of projects for rail, road and inland waterway connectivity to ports

• Development of two hub ports on each of the West and the East coasts – Mumbai (JNPT), Kochi, Chennai and Visakhapatnam

• Port Policy Measures

• Corporatisation of Major Ports

• New Land Policy for Major Ports

• New Policy on captive berths

• Establishing a Port Regulator for all ports for setting, monitoring and regulating service levels and technical & performance standards

• New Policy on dredging

• Shifting of transhipment of Indian containers from foreign ports to Indian ports

• Policy on co-operation and competition amongst Indian Ports

• Establishing ‘Indian Ports Global’ for overseas investments by Indian Ports



The agenda for the decade for Shipping are:

• Increase in Indian tonnage through necessary policy interventions

• Declaration of Coastal Shipping Policy

• Establishment of a ‘Freight Exchange’

• Creation of Ombudsman/ Tribunals for Shipping matters

• Formation of an independent Marine Casualty Investigation Cell

• Establishing a P & I Club in India

• SCI to have ambitious vessel acquisition plans to lead the growth in Indian tonnage

• Introduction of passenger ferry services between India and nearby countries

• Ro-Ro Ferry service in Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Cambay and other suitable places

• Strengthening of capacity for Port State Control and Flag State Inspections

• Promotion of multi-modal transport operations for door to door delivery

• Promotion of a Salvage Company in India, with Viability Gap Funding if required

• Introduction of new Shipbuilding Subsidy Scheme

• Grant of Infrastructure Status to shipbuilding industry

• Purchase preference for Indian shipyards in procurement of ships by Government through global tenders

• Expansion of Cochin Shipyard



For Inland Waterways the agenda envisages:

• Development of IWT infrastructure

• Declaration of River Barak as National Waterway no.6

• Development of National Waterways 4 & 5

• Extension of National Waterway No. 3 in Kerala



The agenda also envisages:

• Enactment of a new Indian Ports Act replacing Indian Ports Act 1908 and the Major Port Trusts Act 1963

• Enactment of Admiralty Act

• Enactment of Shipping Trade Practices Act

• Review of the law on the Multimodal Transportation of Goods

• Revision of the law on Lighthouses and Lightships

• Amendment of Merchant Shipping Act

• Control of piracy through concerted international action

• Bilateral maritime agreements with selected countries/regions for mutual benefit

• A framework for cooperation between Indian ports and those in other countries

• Collaboration of IMU with top global academic institutions in the maritime sector

• Renewal and strengthening of Indo-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transport

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