25 Vessels Added Indian Flag in Ten Months

The number of ships under Indian Flag on December 31, 2017 was 1374 while as on October 31, 2018 the number of ships is 1399 (12.79 Million Tonnes). There is an increase of 25 numbers of ships in last 10 months

According to shipping ministry sources, the number of seafarers in India has seen an unprecedented growth of 42.3% due to various policy level changes brought in by the Government in the last four years.

The number of seafarers in December’ 17 was 1,54,349 while the number of seafarers now has increases to 1,79,599.

The Government of India has an ongoing INR 40 billion (USD 560 million) ShipbuildingFinancial Assistance Policy for 10 years (2016-2026) to encourage domesticshipbuilding.

Under this policy, financial assistance is granted to IndianShipyards equal to 20% of lower of ‘Contract Price” or the “Fair Price” or actualreceipt of each vessel built by them. The rate of financial assistance will be reducedby 3% after every three years.

Meanwhile, the applicability of provisions of Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 has been extended to merchant vessels of below 500 Gross Tonnage, thereby ensuring the benefit of welfare measures available under the Convention to seafarers working on smaller ships as well.