Rs 300-cr sops proposed for coastal shipping in 12th Plan

The Ministry of Shipping is expected to announce incentives to the tune of Rs 300 crore during the 12th Plan period to encourage goods transportation though coastal shipping, chairman of the National Shipping Board, PVK Mohan, said here today.
The committee, which was set up to study the issues of inland vessel (IV) limits, standards for coastal IVs has submitted the recommendation to the Ministry and the same will be notified shortly, Mohan said in a press conference.
"The committee has identified nine commodities- steel, marbles, tiles, cement, automobile, fertilisers, food grains, salt and sugar - for the incentive scheme. The scheme will be in force till 2017. The idea is to encourage transportation though coastal route," Mohan said.

According to him, currently coastal shipping accounts for only 7 per cent or 150 million tonnes of the total cargo movement in India.
Of this, petroleum and oil liquids occupies major share with 49 per cent followed by Coal with 30 per cent and 10 per cent is contributed by iron ore and iron ore pellets.
As per the committee's recommendations, in case of bulk cargoes, all new cargoes on Indian flag vessels (on demonstration of a fresh modal shift) will be eligible for an incentive of 50 paise per ton per nautical mile (nm) up to a maximum of 500 nms.

With the implementation of the new changes and incentives, the Shipping Board expects an increase of 20 million tonnes of cargo movement through coastal shipping by 2017, Mohan predicted.
The board had consulted all the 12 major ports and 180 minor ports (of which 60 are operational now), and the nine maritime states to avail these schemes, Mohan said adding 45 ships had already registered to ply under the new River Sea Vessels (RSV) rules, which were amended in July 2013.