India maritime official urges short sea, multimodal development

One of India's highest ranking maritime officials said Monday that the country desperately needs to focus on short sea shipping, or coastal shipping as it's known in India, as well as multimodal transport.

Not devoting enough attention and resources to those objectives could cost the economy significant growth, argued P.V.K. Mohan, chairman of India's National Shipping Board.

Coastal shipping is the priority, Mohan told the Economic Times in an interview Monday. The concept of way ports, i.e. ports at regular intervals both on the East and West coasts and connectivity of the ports to national highways and railways. This will ultimately lead to growth of cargo along the coast.

The NSB is responsible for developing coastal shipping, inland waterways and also for the taxation of the shipping industry. The board hasn't enjoyed as prominent a role in the Indian governmental hierarchy as the country's railway board, but Mohan is hoping that will change soon.

He said certain types of cargo must shift to short sea shipping to ease pressure on India's overcrowded landside transportation infrastructure.

Heavy cargo should shift to sea and road transport should be limited to white goods and perishables and all that, he said. It will automatically increase the longevity of the roads and also decongest the railway system.

He also urged domestic and foreign logistics companies going forward not to favor one mode in lieu of a true multimodal approach.

Multimodal transport integration is a must for the economy, Mohan said. Hopefully, there are more logistics players coming in who are, rather than just being road or rail players, there would be multimodal players who understand better the total concept of integrated logistics and would not rely on one mode of transport.

Source: American Shipper