The Government of India has lined up about 577 projects with an investment of over $130 billion over the next few years, with the idea of regaining the status of being a maritime power, said Director General of Shipping Amitabh Kumar.
Mr. Kumar was delivering the inaugural address at the two-day GLOMARS- 2019, a global maritime seminar on ‘India – emerging global maritime power challenges,’ here on Friday.
Historically, India was a maritime power, but since the Moghul invasion, and colonial rule, the country had lost its edge.
“The British never allowed our shipping industry and ship building sector to grow,” he said.
The objective can be achieved by improving ports and harbours, enhancing merchant maritime, optimum use of the ocean’s resources and protection of maritime trade.
“The government is moving in that direction by initiating the Sagar Mala project and has invested a lot in the Navy to make it a blue water force. But the focus was not as desired in the case of merchant marine and exploiting ocean resources,” he said.
Mr. Amitabh said under the port modernisation and building new ports initiative, the government has 210 has taken up projects with an investment of $ 27 billion.
“For bringing industry closer to the coastal region, the government plans about 14 SEZs with an investment of $70 billion,” he said.
Logistics cost
The major challenge that the shipping industry was facing is the logistics cost. “Most of the industries are located far from the ports, unlike in other countries, where the industries are shore-based and this is increasing the logistics cost. In 2017-18, 1,402 Indian flag ships shipped around 1100 million tonnes of cargo by working around 21,000 trips and by 2022, we intend to increase it to 1690 million tonnes by increasing the movement to 57,000,” he said.
Deputy Chairman of VPT P.L. Harnadh said the high logistics cost was impeding the growth of the industry.
Rear-Admiral L.V Sarat Babu, the CMD of the Hindustan Shipyard Limited, said: “The time has come for India, like China, to think big and invest in maritime infrastructure across the world. We should go for deep-sea exploitation of resources and take up sea-bed mining. Like the U.S., we must also explore the possibility of exploiting shale gas.”
N. Sambasiva Rao, CEO of Gangavaram Port Limited, C.V Subba Rao, the president of IMEI, and others spoke.
