Policy initiatives required to promote coastal shipping and inland water transport in India

June 24, 2012 - PRLog -- Policy initiatives were needed to promote coastal shipping and inland water transport, Shekhar Dutt, Governor of Chhattisgarh said at a conference on Coastal Shipping, Inland Waterways and Surveillance, organised by CII in Chennai yesterday.

Reserving coastal cargo for Indian ships with a policy on cabotage, reserving cargo for inland waterways and integrating smaller ports with inland waterways will come as a shot in the arm for the growth of inland water transport, he said. Dutt pointed out that India had six percent of the world’s seafarers with 30,000 officers. There was no dearth of skills or motivation.

Need of the hour

The need of the hour is to encourage container shipping that allows major ports to connect with minor ports which, in turn, will connect the inland waterways, the official noted. The cost of developing inland waterways would be a mere five-ten percent of the cost of developing an equivalent four-lane highway or railway.

B Santhanam, Deputy Chairman, CII (Southern Region) and Managing Director of Saint Gobain Glass India Ltd opined that almost 90 percent of India's international trade by volume was carried by sea. Having said that the use of inland water transportation was insignificant, except in Kerala, Santhanam pointed out.

Vice-Admiral (Retd) Pradeep Kaushiva, Director, National Maritime Foundation said: "Inland water transport is more economical, fuel efficient and environment friendly. One litre of fuel can move 105 tonne a kilometre as against 85 tonne by rail and 24 tonne by road. What is more, the changeover to coastal shipping from road and rail transportation is yet to happen".

C Sylendra Babu, Additional DGP, Coastal Security, Tamil Nadu who spoke on the occasion, added: "The importance of coastal security has been recognised by the State much earlier than the Mumbai attack. The Coastal Security Group of Tamil Nadu is a specialised agency that has established a good security system to safeguard its long coastline and territorial waters". For a full report, visit http://automotivehorizon.sulekha.com/policy-initiatives-n...