Govt relaxes cabotage rules to boost transhipment

To promote transhipment at Indian ports, the Union shipping ministry has allowed some relaxations in cabotage rules.

Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country, usually along a coast. Transhipment is the movement of goods and containers to an intermediate destination, usually to be transferred to another place on another mode of transport.

At present, Indian ports are not popular transhipment destinations, losing out to Colombo, Dubai or Singapore.

Now, ports with less than 50 per cent of its cargo being containers can become transhipment hubs.

This will be applicable to Exim-laden or empty containers only.

Any new or existing container port handling transhipment traffic can apply for the relaxation to the Directorate General of Shipping, said the ministry.

The directorate general will grant a relaxation for a year for an old port and two years for a new one.

In a March 7 release, the ministry said the port has to submit the existing container traffic it is handling and the project transhipment containers it would handle every quarter for a year.