Page 168 - Technology Roadmap Transportation

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

carrier Shipping Corporation of India, no canals are conducive to the movement of
other Indian shipping company is willing to mechanised vessels.
enter this sector. At 51% containerisation
level, India continues to be behind developed (b) Although, the promotion and the use of
countries, where containerisation of coastal shipping and inland waterways was
general cargo is up to 70-80%.The level of considered as important in the past very
containerisation in India is bound to increase little has been done so far.
in future and unless the liner tonnage of the
country increases, Indian companies’ share (c) Presently, the share of inland shipping is a
would decline even further. meagre 1%, while coastal shipping constitutes
7% of the total domestic cargo movement
(f) In the interest of national trade, economy and in India. In comparison, nearly 36% of freight,
security, it is necessary, therefore, to develop amounting to about 1.9 billion tonnes, is
a strong Indian merchant fleet having balance moved around Europe through coastal
representation of all the above segments. waters. Other Asian countries such as China
and Indonesia have also exploited their
(g) One of the major challenges faced by Indian coastal waters to a much larger extent.
shipping is lack of cargo support. In countries India’s coastal shipping potential thus remains
like USA and Brazil, Cabotage regulations significantly underutilised as compared to
are strictly followed, whereby all domestic other emerging and developed nations.
cargo is transported by ships that are
indigenously built as well as registered under (d) Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) in India
th
the national flag. However in India, Cabotage grew at an average of 7.2% during the 11
regulations have regularly been waived off five year plan period. While IWT cargo traffic
enabling foreign shipping lines to transport was estimated at 79 MMT in 2011-12, India
India’s domestic cargo between two Indian still falls short in its share of IWT at less than
ports. India needs to adopt similar Cabotage 1% as compared to China’s 8.7%, the USA’s
and cargo support policies like rest of the 8.3% and Europe at 7%.
world in order to improve Indian tonnage to
respectable levels. Share of IWT:
India vs Other countries
(h) Lack of financial incentives has been the India (>1%)
other major challenge faced by the Indian
shipping companies, thus hampering their 1950s China (8.7%)
90%
growth. Introduction of the tonnage tax USA (8.3%)
system in 2004 in lieu of income tax, which
allows Indian shipping companies to pay fixed Europe (7%)
taxes based on their tonnage irrespective
of their earnings, was a major step towards
creating a level playing field for the Indian (e) The foremost benefits of coastal shipping and
inland water transportation are :
30%
ship owner. However, the entire tax structure 1990s
in the country needs to be rationalised and (i) It is environment friendly, fuel-efficient
brought in line with other maritime nations, and safe as compared to road and rail
which offer tax free regime to shipping.
transport.
9%
(ii) The value of fuel consumed by water
2.2.2 Costal Shipping/ Inland Water Transportation 2015-16
(a) India has a huge coastline of 7,517 km, and transport is 30% of that consumed by
has 14,426 km of navigable inland waterways. road. If one takes into account the diesel
Of these, 36% of major rivers and 3% of subsidy given to the road sector, the

Inland Shipping (1%)
Coastal Shipping (7%)
Other Transport modes (92%)

Shares of Inland and Coastal Shipping in total domestic cargo movement in India

166 WATERWAYS