Alarmed by the recent spate of accidents, the Director General of Shipping (DGS) has banned the use of chartered vessels older than 25 years in India's territorial waters in foul weather.
The step, according to a circular issued by the country's maritime regulator on April 25, was initiated following the suggestions from a working committee set up by the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways in July 2007 to study the trend in rising marine accidents in Indian seas.
At least 18 accidents were reported within 8-10 weeks in the monsoon last year.
By modifying the existing guidelines for chartering of vessels, the DGS has barred all the charter vessels more than 25 years old (30 years in case of gas carriers), including all cargo vessels, oil or product tankers and dredgers, from plying in the Indian waters.
The circular says old vessels would not ply in the Bay of Bengal along the east coast for a period of seven months from May 1 to November 30, while in the Arabian Sea along the west coast, the vessels cannot be used between June 1 and August 31.
More From This Section
"Since analysis of the accidents over the last three years showed a significant correlation between the age of vessels and the break-downs that caused these casualties, the committee recommended the revision of guidelines to restrict the age of vessels and a tighter regime of survey and inspection," said Deputy DGS Samuel Darse in the circular.
In addition, the circular also states that charted vessels can only ply in the Indian waters if they are classified by the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) or any other government classified societies.
The move, however, has generated opposition from a quarter of the industry that is of the view that it may add to the problems of oil and gas exploration companies, which were already facing acute shortage of vessels.
According to industry sources, in 2007, the Indian fleet stood at 850 vessels, which includes overseas vessels of different categories, crossing 900 million gross tonnage for the first time. The average age of Indian fleet as on October 2007 was 18 years.
"Looking at the past accidents, it becomes clear that even new Indian vessels classed with IRS have met with serious accidents. This includes ONGC's Samudra Suraksha, Sam-10, Malaviya-23 and Malaviya-10, which were aged below 25. Therefore, the cause of accidents could be somewhere else and not the age," said a Member of Parliament in a letter to the shipping ministry, demanding relaxations in the new law.
Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) chairman and managing director S Hajra said: "Even though it cannot be firmly said that age of the vessel was one of the grave reason for accidents, but if the government considers that this move could reduce accidents, then one should wait for its effect and not jump to conclusions."
Also, there were concerns about whether the IRS was efficient enough to tackle the tremendous task of certifying each and every vessel.
Shreyas Shipping CEO Anil Delvi said: "We had put forward this argument with the ministry and the DGS but they have assured us that IRS was geared up for the new challenge."
Delvi too expressed his doubts that there was any evidence to show that past accidents were linked to the age of the vessel. However, he hoped that the DGS could always relax the rule if it was not effective.
Industry players have also urged the DGS to make public the accident inquiries in future cases.