‘India is in need of more very large crude carriers’
Veteran stevedore from the city G. Pattabhi Ramayya has sought intervention from the Centre to unveil an action plan to increase the number of various types of ships carrying Indian flags.
Stating that almost 90 per cent of Indian trade is handled by vessels carrying foreign flags, he said “we are still primitive in carriage of containers.” Asking the Narendra Modi Government to draw a cue from the United States and Japan on how they were encouraging their national flag both financially and by providing cargo, he said the people of India had pinned a lot of hopes on the new government.
“We hope we can become self-reliant if right patronage is given by encouraging construction of own vessels as well as extending desired support to our national carrier Shipping Corporation of India,” Mr. Ramayya told The Hindu on Monday.
He also wanted relaxation of cabotage law for transportation of domestic cargo and funding and other incentives to SCI to augment its fleet. He said SCI fleet, which comprised 125, had now come down to around 75 as acquisition had slowed down.
Mr. Ramayya, who is the director of Federation of Steamer Agents of India and chairman emeritus of Visakhapatnam Steamer Agents’ Association, said still 80 per cent of bulk raw material and finished products like coal, iron ore and fertilizers were carried by foreign flag vessels for want of government support and required tonnage to be acquired.
He also wrote a letter to Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin J. Gadkari asking him to enable SCI to acquire tonnage especially for carriage of larger volume of cargoes like oil, containerised cargo and bulk cargoes like coal, iron ore and fertilizers.
Mr. Ramayya said India was in need of more very large crude carriers (VLCC), cape size and Panamax vessels for faster handling of cargo in mechanised environment at various ports in the country.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities / by Santosh Patnaik / Visakhapatnam – July 07th, 2014