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
MC/DG/ls