Shipping policy to incentivise shift from roads to seaways

The ministry of shipping is working on a coastal shipping policy that will incentivise modal shift of cargo movement from rail and road to seaways, according to capt PVK Mohan, chairman of the National Shipping Board (NSB), the statutory body that advises central government on matters related to Indian shipping.
According to him, incentives could be on a sliding scale to match with the shift of cargo from the road and rail to the seaways. “Seaways would be an economical mode of transport if cargo was available two-way,” he said.
“Land policy has delayed many a project but this issue was now is being taken up at a high level to ensure that projects are taken up fast,” said Mohan.
India has 12 major ports and 187 non-major ports. The major ports account for about 58 per cent of the volumes handled and the non major ports 42 per cent. The capacity of all major ports as of March 2013 was 744.91 million metric tonnes (MMT) and the traffic was 545.79 MMT, indicating a capacity utilisation of 70 per cent.
According to ‘Coastal Shipping- An Envrionment Friendly Alternative’ report by maritime consultants Hauer Assocates and industry body CII in April this year, coastal shipping or the short sea shipping could only be a link in a multi-modal transport chair. For the coastal shipping to be viable, the entire multi-modal chain should be efficient.
About 60 per cent of the domestic freight is moved by road and the national highways carry as much as 40 per cent of road freight. Rails carry about 30 per cent of the domestic freight annually. About eight per cent of the total domestic cargo on a tonne-km basis is moved by coastal shipping. Much of this movement is of bulk cargo such as POL and coal, it said.
Relatively high costs at major ports, shallow draft at non-major ports and inadequate road and rail connectivity are bottlenecks for coastal shipping, it said.
“With coastal shipping, there is potential in India to increase the cargo handling many fold. As many as 36 projects that will augment the shipping infrastructure in the country were likely to be awarded during 2013-14,” said Mohan. He was in Hyderabad last week in connection with an event organised by the Chennai Port Trust to woo the industry to use the Chennai Port.
Source: My Digital FC