Ministry identifies new routes for RoRo, RoPax & ferry services

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has been working continuously for the promotion of coastal shipping under the Sagarmala programme which is the flagship programme of the Ministry to promote port-led development in the country by harnessing India’s 7,500 km long coastline and potentially navigable waterways.

MoPSW has identified domestic locations, namely, Hazira, Okha, Somnath Temple, Diu, Pipavav, Dahej, Mumbai/JNPT, Jamnagar, Kochi, Ghogha, Goa, Mundra and Mandvi, and 6 international routes connecting 4 international destinations, namely, Chattogram (Bangladesh), Seychelles (East Africa) Madagascar (East Africa) and Jaffna (Sri Lanka) from Indian major coastal port towns for the commencement of ferry services through inland waterways, informed an official communiqué.

The Ministry, through Sagarmala Development Co. Ltd (SDCL), is desirous of facilitating companies to operate RoRo, RoPax and ferry services on various routes across the nation and provide the required support to make the project operational.

It recently successfully implemented one such ferry route by deploying RoPax vessel ferry service between Hazira and Ghogha in Gujarat, which reduced the distance between the two locations from 370 km to 90 km and travel time from 10 to 12 hours to about 5 hours. This will result in huge savings of fuel (approx. 9,000 litres a day)

To replicate the success of this business model, MoPSW is now encouraging private operators to identify the routes that offer potential to commence RoRo, RoPax ferry service based on localised demand in order to promote supplementary and sustainable mode of transportation through coastal/inland waters. The purpose is to:

• Create a supplementary mode of transportation which will not only be beneficial for daily commuters, tourist movement and cargo transportation, but also helpful in reducing carbon footprint by shifting to environment-friendly mode of transportation from rail and road.
• Provide impetus to the tourism industry.
• Create job opportunities in the coastal regions.
• Saving in terms of both cost and time for users.
• Decongest road and rail networks

Sagarmala Development Co. will support the initiative by providing equity to the project in SPV framework, if required, as also provide other assistance and facilitation to the private operator(s) including obtaining various permissions and approvals from regulatory and statutory government authorities, the communiqué added.