India 2018

508 India 2018
A shipbuilding subsidy scheme was in existence to promote Indian Shipbuilding
industry for Central PSU Shipyards since 1971. The scheme was extended to all
Indian shipyards in October 2002. This policy which provided shipbuilding
subsidy gave a boost to the Indian shipbuilding Industry.
Ship Repair
The Indian share in the global ship repair market continued to be low as there
was very little capacity addition. Indian ship owners continued to rely on
overseas repair facilities owing to insufficient capacity and high level of taxation.
There are 27 shipyards in the country, 6 under central public sector, 2 under
state governments and 19 under private sector.
Ship Recycling
India has 25-30 per cent share in the global ship recycling industry. Ship recycling
is carried out mainly at Alang-Sosiya in Gujarat. Started in February, 1983, Alang-
Sosiya is the largest ship recycling yard in the world. Approximately 10 km
long sea front on the western coast of the Gulf of Cambay adjoining to Alang-
Sosiya village has been developed as a ship recycling yard. It is blessed with
high tidal range, long beach with gentle slope and firm ground, facilitating
beaching of ships just at the threshold of the plot. It has high recycling potential
of more than 450 ships (approximately 4.5 million LDT) per annum. Ship
recycling serves the nation by producing about more than 3.5 million ton per
annum of re-rollable steel without exploiting the natural resources and provides
a green route to generate th secondary steel in place of generation of steel from
the ore itself. There are in all 153 ship recycling plots at Alang-Sosiya. About
25000 labourers are directly engaged in ship recycling industry and around 1 to
1.5 lakh persons are benefitted indirectly.
Major Ports
Emerging global economy has opened up new avenues in all the sectors in
general and maritime sector in particular. Ports provide an inter-face between
ocean transport and land based transport. Ports play a vital role in the overall
economic development. There are 12 major ports and about 200 non-major ports
along India's Coastline which is about 7517 km. The 6 major ports Kolkata,
Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Kamarajar (Ennore), Chennai and V.O. Chidamananar
are on the east coast and the other major ports viz., Cochin, New Mangalore,
Mormugao, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Sheva, Navi Mumbai) and
Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla) are on the west coast. The major ports are under
the direct administrative control of the Central Government and fall in Union
List 7th Schedule of Constitution. Ports other than the major ones are under
jurisdiction of the respective maritime state government and fall in Concurrent
List. Of the total traffic handled by all Indian Ports, 57 per cent is handled by
major ports and 43 per cent by others.
Kolkata Port: Kolkata Port is the only riverine major port in the country having
been in existence for about 138 years. It has a vast hinterland comprising the