Short Sea Shipment in India set to get a boost
Players in the Indian short sea shipping trade now hope to see light at the end of the tunnel. Several measures are being put in place to provide the necessary fillip and the government is making efforts to shift substantial domestic freight moving by road and rail on to the coastal and inland waterways transport.
In the new scheme private participation is being encouraged for setting up several projects as part of the infrastructure development programme. The government has declared three National Waterways for development for navigation by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) with private participation.
The three are Ganga – Bhagirathi - Hooghly between Allahabad - Haldia (1620 km), the Sadiya-Dhubri stretch of river Brahmaputra (891 km) in Assam and the Kollam - Kottapuram stretch of West Coast Canal (205 km) in Kerala. Three more are in the process of being declared National Waterways.
S. K. Shahi, CMD of SKS Logistics Ltd, a major player in short sea shipping and which has entered into a number of joint ventures with IWAI for construction of barges and operation them between Kolkata and Pandu, and between Kolkata and Mongla (Bangladesh) among others had this to say. “Inland water transport in India is picking up rapidly and the scope is immense. Annually 3 ½ million tons of cargo is moved to and from Kolkata port by inland barges. Without this operation the port would come to a standstill. Iron ore is moved out to China by inland vessels from Kolkata port. There is also sulphur, fertiliser, fly ash, clinker and several other commodities that are moved by river or along the coast from Kolkata.”
Speaking from experience Mr Shahi stated, “Inland waterways connecting Cochin port with up-country destinations has come to gain considerable importance as road connectivity occasionally gets disrupted due to road accidents - even for as long as a day. Inland water transport has gained great prominence at Mumbai port. Tata Power stations based in Mumbai depend on inland water transport for their 3 ½ million tons of coal / coke required annually. Similarly short sea shipment has become the lifeline for the private port of Mundra and the government owned Kandla ports in Gujarat.”
“Over $ 100 million worth of freight gets transported by Inland vessels,” informed S. S. Rangnekar, former Chairman of the Indian Coastal Conference and the present CEO of the Indian National Shipowners’ Association. “Though the development of short shipment is mired by inadequate infrastructure and shallow depth of the inland waterways which is battered by heavy siltation, efforts are being made to connect several ports and cities by inland waterways. Recently short sea shipment got an immense boost with the government allowing River-Sea transport by the same vessel thus avoiding multiple handling, loading and unloading and use of multiple vessels for the same journey of the goods.”
According to government sources several commodities should be moved by water transport to reduce the pressure on the road and rail infrastructure and bring in huge saving, reduce pollution, cost reduction, etc. The list includes cement, ore, clinker, coal, fertiliser, building material, etc. It has also become easy to build barges and other vessels for short shipment which at present are being constructed in just three to four months.