Senior officials from the government and private sector will congregate in Kochi today to discuss the opportunities and challenges in developing India’s coastal multimodal logistics sector, organized by India Seatrade.
The NDA government, led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, is increasingly focusing attention on tapping India’s 7,500-kilometer coastline for cargo as well as passengers. The importance given by the government to the sector is reflected in the Maritime India Vision 2030 and the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 1947 documents.
In the Union Budget for 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also acknowledged the need for promoting coastal shipping as an energy-efficient and low-cost mode of transport, both for passengers and freight, through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode with viability gap funding.
The ‘Coastal Multimodal Logistics Summit 2024’ will be attended by Shri Venkatesapathy, IAS, Director, Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways; Shri Shitesh Ranjan, Deputy Director General of Shipping, Government of India; Shri N.S. Pillai, Chairman, Kerala Maritime Board; Shri Nilabhra Dasgupta, IRS, Deputy Chairman, Paradip Port Authority; Dr Divya S Iyer, IAS, Managing Director, Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd; Shri Gurkaran Singh Bains, IRS, Commissioner Customs, Cochin; Shri Rahul Modi, Member, National Shipping Board, Shri P.K. Mishra, Managing Director, Indian Register of Shipping, Shri Kamal Jain, Executive Director (Business Development), Container Corporation of India Ltd; Shri Subhash Kumar Das, Executive Director (Logistics & Infrastructure), Steel Authority of India Ltd; Shri Rajagopal. A, Chief General Manager (North East), Food Corporation of India and Shri Arun. R. Salvi, Head Supply Chain – PetChem, Reliance Industries Ltd.
India’s long and contiguous coastline and extensive navigable inland waterways offer an excellent opportunity to tap environmentally friendly water-based modal transport, which can complement rail and road-based cargo movement.
Currently, coastal and inland waterways contribute only about 6 percent of the country’s freight modal mix, while adjacent developing economies such as Bangladesh (16 percent) and Thailand (12 percent) have a higher share of water-based transport, highlighting the scope for improvement in India.
“Despite significantly lower costs, water transport accounts for about 6 percent of total freight movement in India in ton km terms,” according to the Maritime India Vision 2030, a ten-year blueprint for India’s maritime sector. “Industrial development has not fully utilized the structural advantages of efficient supply chains leveraging proximity to the coast,” it said.
The modal shift of cargo using coastal shipping is one of the four focus areas identified by the government to improve logistics efficiency and cost competitiveness for maritime logistics.
An improvement in the share of water-based transport would lead to a lowering of logistics costs for end-user industries, as water-based transport is inherently cheaper than rail and road modes.
However, the development of water-based transport would require the development of effective multimodal solutions, as first- and last-mile connectivity, lead times, and costs become important factors for ensuring a shift from door-to-door services provided by road and rail-road modes.
Thus, an integrated approach to development is required to design the most cost-effective and hassle-free logistics solutions for end-user industries.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways has undertaken several initiatives in the last few years to facilitate coastal shipping, such as incentivizing the construction of dedicated coastal berths, reducing port tariffs for coastal cargo, provisioning green channel clearance for coastal cargo, and prioritizing the berthing of coastal vessels.
The cabotage rules were also eased for a few commodities to increase vessel availability.
These measures have led to double-digit growth in the coastal shipping movement.
The vast potential for coastal shipping, however, is yet to be fully realized, and a more focused approach is required to realize this potential.
The 10th edition of the ‘Coastal Multimodal Logistics Summit’ will discuss key issues facing the sector for a viable, alternate mode of transport.
