Government Takes Steps to Increase Coastal Movement of Cargo

The Minister of State for Shipping, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Lok Sabha today that the following steps have been taken by the Government of India to increase the coastal movement of cargo in the country:

(i) A River–Sea Vessel (RSV) Notification for moderating the technical and manning requirements for such vessels operating within the Indian territorial waters was issued by the Directorate General of Shipping on July 31, 2013.

(ii) Directorate General of Shipping has issued an order declaring the Inland Vessel (IV) limits for facilitating coastal trade operations.

(iii) Coastal Shipping Rules for coastal vessels operating within 20 miles off the coast have been issued by the Directorate General of Shipping on March 4, 2014.

(iv) Green Channel facility is being provided at major ports for faster evacuation of coastal cargo.

(v) Major ports have been directed to provide priority berthing to coastal vessels to reduce waiting times of such vessels at the major ports.

As per a study on transportation mode-wise fuel costs, the estimate cost of carriage by coastal shipping is INR 0.25 per tonne-km as compared to INR 1.20 by road and INR 0.60 by rail. The steps taken recently by the Government to prioritize movement of coastal cargo include (i) Green Channel facility at major ports for faster evacuation of coastal cargo; and (ii) directions to major ports to provide priority berthing to coastal vessels to reduce waiting times of such vessels at the major ports.

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SA/IK