Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways is working diligently towards achieving major objectives of Maritime India Vision 2030.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (PSW) is working diligently towards achieving Maritime India Vision objectives. This has resulted in the ministry clock growth & improvement across its verticals. The effort put in to modernise, mechanise, and digitise processes led to positive transformation, leading to better cost & time in international trade, contributing towards Ease of Doing Business.
The average turnaround time for container vessels at major ports has improved from 43.44 hours in 2014 to 26.58 hours in 2021. Recently, the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, said, “During the last fiscal, the ministry put forth unwavering effort to achieve the vision of transformation through transportation. This has helped us inch closer to achieving these objectives within the specified time and improved the performance of our major verticals. This trickles down towards ease of doing business and overall growth in trade and economic growth of the country.”
The major Indian ports under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Government of India, registered an impressive growth rate in traffic movement at 6.94% during FY2021-22 over the previous fiscal year (Y-o-Y). The five major ports of the country recorded their highest ever traffic during the year.
The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the statutory body in charge of the waterways in India under the ministry, transported 105 million tonnes of cargo through National Waterways, registering an impressive increase of 25.61% Y-o-Y basis. Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, in a written reply in Lok Sabha on 11th February 2022, informed that as per the Maritime India Vision-2030 published by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the global downturn in the shipbuilding industry significantly impacted the Indian shipyards and India’s share in the Global markets have declined to less than 1%.
Further, the Government of India approved the Financial Assistance Policy for Indian Shipyards on 9th December 2015 to grant financial assistance to Indian Shipyards for shipbuilding contracts signed between 1st April 2016 to 31st March 2026. The above policy caters to domestic and export orders under the guidelines issued.
The Shipyard is provided financial assistance upon delivery of the vessels. 21 Shipyards spread across various States have registered under the scheme, with details of around 170 vessels being constructed. Out of which 47 vessels are built and delivered by 09 shipyards for which financial assistance is already sanctioned.