Dec 23, 2016: The Ministry of Shipping has taken several steps during the year to build its base for realising the full potential of India’s maritime sector. From weeding out and amending obsolete legislations to modernising existing infrastructure to building new ones, the Ministry has unleashed a whole range of initiatives aimed at the growth and development of the sector.
The Indian maritime industry is an integral part of the country’s trade and commerce. It supports 90 per cent of India’s trade by volume. India has one of the largest merchant shipping fleet and ranked 17 among the developing countries with average age of the fleet being 18.03 years. India has a total of 1,299 ships comprising of 11.24 MGT as on October 2016. Out of the total tonnage, 900 vessels of about 1.52 million GT are engaged in Coastal trade and remaining 399 vessels are plying in overseas trade. Despite growth in tonnage, the percentage of cargo carried by Indian flag ships has reduced from 40.7 per cent in 1987-88 to 7.45 per cent of total EXIM trade in 2014-15. Twelve major and 200 non-major ports are dotted along the coast. Over the last two years, a host of policy and regulatory reforms by the Government has resulted in capacity building and service delivery improvement.
The major developments last year were Sagarmala Project, revamped Merchant Shipping Bill to replace Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, replacing Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 with Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016, 111 National Waterways, Admiralty Bill 2016, port-led industrialisation, port connectivity enhancement and many more.