Package to promote shipbuilding industry

The Shipping Ministry will soon submit a new package to promote the shipbuilding industry before the Cabinet for approval, Exim News Service informs.


This was disclosed by the Union Minister for Shipping, Mr G. K. Vasan, recently.


Mr Vasan said that his Ministry was also working on a new policy to promote coastal shipping.


Speaking at a ‘Ports and Maritime Investment and Business Conclave,’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said that the Ministry also had plans to develop the Colachel port in Kanyakumari in partnership with the Tamil Nadu government.


He pointed out that the deep-draught Colachel port was strategically located close to the international shipping routes.


Mr Vasan also highlighted that the recently-released Maritime Agenda 2020—a vision document—had set some significant goals.


These included increasing port capacity to 3.2 billion tonnes, which would require an investment of Rs 3,00,000 crore, raising Indian tonnage four-fold to 43 million GT, adding to India’s share in global shipbuilding up to 5 per cent and the share of Indian seafarers to nearly 10 per cent, he pointed out.
(Source:http://www.transportweekly.com)