Search Result for : Coastal Shipping

Coastal Shipping: Still a long way to go; VPT gearing Up

Sreenivasa Rao Dasari After decades of lull in the domestic waterways, the country’s major ports are gearing up to promote coastal shipping thanks to the Sagarmala project and focus of the NDA government. Major ports including Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) have started taking measures including offering incentives to boost cargo transportation using coastal shipping. ICC Shipping Association observes the legislation changes and processes but infrastructural issues are yet to be addressed properly as practised in China, Japan, EU and the US. India still faces a shortage of containers, maintenance support and policy push, said the industry body. Organisations such as Food Corporation of India (FCI) have taken measures to transport food grains using coastal shipping.  India has a long coastline of about ...

Nutrient Based Subsidy Policy extended to coastal shipping of fertilizers

The Dollar Business Bureau  The coastal shipping and inland water transportation have extended the policy for reimbursement of freight for movement of phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilizers under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Policy. It was only the movement of fertilizer by rail from the plant or the port to rake points in various districts that were included in the subsidy but will now also apply to the movement of fertilizers through coastal shipping and inland waterways. The move will help in promoting transportation of fertilizers through coastal shipping under the Ministry of Shipping’s flagship programme Sagarmala. The move has been taken after a study concluded that a total opportunity for coastal movement of fertilizers is 9-10 MTPA by 2025 which can lead to ...

India, Bangladesh to enhance bilateral trade through coastal shipping

The Dollar Business Bureau India and Bangladesh have agreed to operationalize their bilateral agreement on coastal shipping, which will enable the two countries to save logistics costs of export and import. The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) agreement was signed in New Delhi on Sunday between the Joint DG (Shipping) from Indian side and Chief Engineer and Ship Surveyor, Department of Shipping, Bangladesh. The coastal shipping agreement was signed between the two countries in June this year. India’s Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari who was present during the signing of SOP said that once it is operational, the agreement will enable a huge saving in logistic costs of EXIM (export-import) transport between the two countries. “The SOP has been framed as per the ...

Forays into coastal shipping will boost logistics

Satyapal Menon | The Dollar Business Government of India’s propensity for tapping the potential of inland waterways is bound to open a sea of opportunities for both the shipping and logistics industry. Inexplicably, despite the country’s extensive coastline of over 7000Km, coastal shipping had remained dormant all these years. According to definition, Coastal vessel means a vessel of Indian registry with exclusive Indian crew, engaged in carriage by sea of cargo or passengers, from one Indian port to another port or place in India, and/or any other vessel having specified period of license for engagement in coastal trade issued by the Director General of Shipping. India continues to cling on to archaic Cabotage law which mandated that only Indian vessels had ...

India, Bangladesh step ahead for inland water transport and coastal shipping agreements

The Dollar Business Bureau India and Bangladesh agreed upon the extension of Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT) in line with the provision of the automatic renewal, as proposed under the India-Bangladesh bilateral trade. According to an official release by the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India, the Bangladeshi side agreed to revert back on the matter after having necessary consultations with the concerned authorities of Bangladesh government. The response by the Bangladeshi side was given in regard to the development of protocol route under regional International Development Agency (IDA) support of World Bank. In the Secretary-level talks held in New Delhi on Monday, it was also agreed that the regular movement of passenger and cruise vessels would ...