Coastal shipping operators have called for a policy initiative to streamline the procedures and systems affecting shippers and to bring them in accordance with norms prevalent in other maritime nations. These include rationalisation of customs duty on import of spares and equipment, special treatment on application of rules and regulations as against foreign-going vessels and dedicated berths at ports for coastal ships.
They have also called for doing away with customs clearance requirements at major ports and rationalising the high berthing and cargo handling charges for ocean-going vessels. Operators contend that coastal ships generally operate within the territorial waters, and therefore, these should be exempt from custom formalities.
According to shippers, freedom to load and unload cargo and the need for sprucing up of infrastructural facilities at ports, which includes construction of specialised dry docking facilities for coastal ships are important for development of coastal shipping.
Even though Indian cabotage regulations restrict entry of foreign liners into coastal shipping, the rules are being bypassed, they added, calling for action to ensure implementation of regulations. Pushing a case for rationalisation of customs duty on imports by coastal operators, operators have said that the benefits of waiver from payment of import duty is available mostly to the intermediaries who import the equipments and do not get passed on to the shipowner.
Lack of designated ports for coastal shipping with requisite connectivity to the hinterland is also a hindrance, the shippers said. Development of coastal shipping is important as it would ease the pressure on road and rail for transportation of cargo to major ports and moving imported goods from ports to coastal areas to the final destinations, following which road and rail transport can then provide the "last mile linkages."
For the loading and unloading of cargo, it has been suggested that operators should have the freedom to employ their own labour for loading and unloading without the intervention of agencies such as the Dock Labour Board.
There is also the need for introducing specialised dry docks for coastal vessels at an urgent basis, they said. The need for constructing special dry docks and slipways for coastal vessels stems from the fact that the existing dry dock facilities are primarily meant for larger ships.
Moreover, the charges are also comparatively higher for the smaller coastal ships. India has approximately 6,000 km of coastline and the potential of coastal shipping as an alternative mode of cargo movement is enormous. After years of stagnation, coastal cargo movement is witnessing a change and there has been an increase of 32.3 per cent in terms of gross registered tonnage (GRT) and a 31.3 per cent increase in terms of number of ships in the last five years.
