"There's the need for construction of more vessels for the protection of the coastline. I appeal to the Centre to provide subsidy to ship-building industry to allow it to build small and big ships," Mishra told reporters on the sidelines of a function held at the Maritime University campus here.
National Shipping Board chairman Capt PVK Mohan in his address assured of all assistance to the university to take up more initiatives to conduct new courses like dredging to cater to the needs of marine industry.
He was addressing students on the occasion of University Day celebrations today.
"The shipping ministry had already sanctioned funds for the construction of new campus on 114 acres at Sabbavaram in Visakhapatnam district. The construction work will start as soon as the district administration hand over the land to the university authorities," he said.
Mohan asked the management of the university to concentrate on dredging course which has a tremendous job potential. "There's a shortage of manpower in dredging industry and we need lot of dredging facilities," he added.
Mohan also stressed the need for setting up Maritime Board in the state for development of marine industry and assured necessary assistance.
Maritime University director S C Mishra said Visakhapatnam campus was established by merging the National Ship Design and Research Centre on March 20, 2009.