India may ship in foreign seafarers

A serious shortage of qualified Indian marine officers has led the government to consider foreign seafarers on board the Indian ships.

The Merchant Shipping Act does not allow this.

The Directorate-General of Shipping (DGS) is considering the demand of Indian shipowners to allow them to recruit up to two foreign nationals to work on board Indian ships in both nautical and engineering disciplines, subject to certain conditions.

A senior shipping ministrty official confirmed the development, adding, "Either the master or the chief officer must be an Indian national."

India has a shortage of over 500 officers. A study by the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) and the International Shipping Federation (ISF) indicated that the worldwide shortage could go up to 27,000 officers by 2015 from about 10,000 now.

This also has other repercussions. "Shortage of quality seafarers to work on Indian vessels is leading to increased accidents and higher detention at ports. Recently, a 26-year-old marine officer on board a Shipping Corporation of India tanker vessel committed suicide as he was sailing without break for 11 months," said an industry source.

Indian shipowners are, however, not fully happy with the conditions stipulated by the DGS.

According to the DGS norms, the foreign seafarers appointed by Indian shipowners should be from listed nations like Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Malaysia, Romania, Russia, UK and Ukraine.

Indian National Ship owners Association (INSA) Secretary General SS Kulkarni said, "Although this is a move in the right direction, we have requested to allow five to six foreign seafarers and add more countries to this list such as Singapore, Sri Lanka and Philippines."

The DGS has also insisted that foreign seafarers should undergo a three-day familiarisation course on National Maritime Law conducted by Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced Maritime Studies & Research, Mumbai.

Apart from this, it is also required that shipowners ensure necessary clearances for overseas seafarers from the ministries of home and external affairs.

"The security clearances and familiarisation course are going to increase the cost for shipping firms," said a ship owner.