Overview

Water transport can be broadly divided into two groups - Inland water transport and Shipping. Shipping, in turn, can again be divided into two categories Coastal shipping and Overseas shipping.

Inland Water Transportation

Inland water transport includes natural modes as navigable rivers and artificial modes such as canals. The Inland waterways have played an important role in the Indian transport system since ancient times. However, in recent times the importance of this mode of transport has declined considerably with the expansion of road and rail transport. In addition, diversion of river water for irrigation has also reduced the importance of inland water transport. The decline is also due to deforestation of hill ranges leading to erosion, accumulation of silt in rivers and failure to modernize the fleet to suit local conditions. The transportation of goods in an organized form is confined to West Bengal, Assam, parts of North Eastern region and Goa.

Development of inland water transport commenced from the Second Five Year Plan and up to the end of Fifth Plan the total expenditure on this sector was Rs. 34 crores. It was only in the Sixth Plan that this sector was given priority and specific schemes of inter-State and national importance for development of inland water transport were taken up. The Seventh Plan was an important landmark in the development of inland water transport. The expenditure on this sector in the Plan (at Rs. 131.85 crores) was more than the expenditure incurred right up to the end of the Sixth Plan. Three objectives were laid down in the Seventh Plan for the development of inland water transport :

Development of inland water transport in the regions where it enjoys natural advantage.
Modernizations of vessels and country crafts to suit local conditions- and
Improvement in the productivity of assets. The Inland Waterway Authority has been set up which is a big step forward and should help in the accelerated development of inland water transport.

Coastal Shipping

India has a long coastline of 7,516.6 kms, a number of ports (11 major and 139 minor working ports) and a vast hinterland. Therefore coastal shipping holds a great promise more so because it is the most energy efficient and cheapest mode of transport for carriage of bulky goods like iron and steel, iron ore, coal, timber, etc. over long distances. However, despite this fact (and despite the fact that coastal shipping was reserved exclusively for Indian ships after Independence), there has been a sharp decline in coastal shipping operations. For instance, the number of ships fell from 97 in 1961 to only 56 in 1980 while Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) fell from 3.1 lakhs to 2.5 lakhs over the same period. However, at the end of 1994 the fleet strength was 438 vessels of 6.3 million GRT. The main factors affecting the growth of coastal shipping adversely have been “High transportation costs especially for movement other than those between a pair of water front locations, port delays, poor turnaround time of coastal ships on account of overaged vessels, lack of mechanical handling, facilities etc.” The coastal fleet is ageing fast; about 52 per cent of the tonnage is already overdue for replacement. Also, there is imbalance in coastal traffic movement as traffic is not equally available in both directions. This makes it necessary for coastal ships to sail in ballast, at times, on return journey. Moreover, slow handling of the cargo at port and undue port delays inflict heavy losses on shipping, companies. It is estimated that at present 70 per cent of ship time is spent at ports and only 30 per cent on voyage.

Overseas Shipping

Because of the importance of overseas shipping in international trade, considerable attention has been paid to increase the shipping tonnage in the planning period. As a result, the share of Indian shipping in the transportation of India's overseas trade has slowly and consistently increased in the planning period. From around 5 per cent in the first Plan, it increased to around 34.0 per cent at the end of 1993-94. as compared to 1.92 lakh GRT (Gross Registered Tonnage) at the time of Independence, shipping tonnage increased to 6.30 lakhs GRT in 1994.

In the First Plan Rs. 18.7 crores were spent on shipping while the expenditure in Second Plan stood at Rs. 52.7 crores. An important step taken during the Second Plan was the establishment of a non-lapsing shipping development fund for grant of loans to shipping companies for the acquisition of tonnage. The Third Plan made a provision of Rs. 55 crores for shipping which rose to Rs. 135 crores in the Fourth Plan. The Sixth Plan envisaged the augmentation of shipping tonnage for meeting increased requirements of India’s foreign trade and also to replace the overaged tonnage especially the coastal vehicles. ‘The outlay in this plan was kept at Rs. 720 crores while actual expenditure was only Rs. 432.94 crores. The resources constraint had forced the Seventh Plan to keep the outlay at Rs. 693.42 crores and the actual expenditure was only Rs. 670.05 crores. The broad objectives for development of shipping in this plan were kept as follows :

Modernization of fleet on the basis of improved ship designed and fuel efficiency in engines.
Replacement of overaged fleet on a selective basis.
Drivers fixation of fleet by acquisition of cellular container ships and specialized product carriers.
Addition to fleet on a selective basis, keeping in view the long-term objective of achieving- self-sufficiency in tanker fleet.

Eight Plan About Shipping

The Eighth Plan has as its main objective acquisition of a modern, diversified fleet capable of helping in the realization of the objectives of export promotion and improved balance of payments of the country. From this point of view about 15 lakh GRT will be replaced during the Eighth Plan period and about 10 lakh GRT will be added to the tonnage increasing the Eight Plane to 70 lakh GRT the outlay for the eight Plan for the shipping is Rs 3,668.91 crores.

Ports

India’s coastline of about 6,000 km is dotted with 11 major, 11 intermediate and 168 minor ports. Nearly 95 per cent of the country’s foreign cargo (by volume) moves by sea and, therefore, ports/and their development assume an important place in policy making. Development and maintenance of India’s major ports are the responsibility of the Central Government, while Other Ports are in the Concurrent list.

Major Ports

India’s major ports are governed by the Indian ports Act 1908 and the Major Port Trusts Act 1963. The former allow the Statutory to declare any port a major port, define port limit, levy charges etc. while the formation of Port trust Boards and vests the administration control and management of major ports in these Boards.

At the time of independence, India had five major Ports, viz. Mumbai, Calcutta, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, and Cochin. With the Karachi Port going to Pakistan after Partition, there was the for a major port on the western coast. A new port was developed at Kandla, which was declared a major port in 1955. The Marmugao Port, developed by the Portugues, joined the ranks of major ports in 1964 after the liberation of Goa in 1962. Para deep, on the eastern coast, was declared a major port in 1966. Eight years later, New Mangalore and Tuticoin were added to the list of major ports. The inclusion of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva on the western coast took the number of major ports to 11.

Development of port after the independence, the development of major ports was taken up in a planned manner. Mechanization and modernizations of cargo-handling facilities at Ports have been a thrust area in recent years, with emphasis on development of dedicated infrastructure. Deepening of ports to receive lager vessels has been another priority area. Vishakhapatnam and Chennai ports have already been deepened.

Minor and intermediate ports

Minor and intermediate ports fall in the Concurrent list and their administration is the responsibility of the respective coastal states. Their number as well as their categorization into minor or intermediate Ports has varied from time to time, depending upon the volume of cargo and the number of passenger they handle. In 1996, there were 11 intermediate and 168 minor ports and state wise distribution was:

Orissa -2, Andhra Pradesh - 12, Tamil Nadu -10, Pondicherry - 1, Andarnan and Nicobar - 22, Lakshadweep -10, Kerala - 13, Karnataka - 9, Goa - 5, Maharashtra - 53, Darnan and Diu - 2 and Gujarat - 40.

Name of the 11 major ports

Calcutta, Haidia, Paradeep, Mumbai, Chennai Cochin, Tuticorin, JNPR, Kandla Vishakhapatnam, New Mangalore, and Marmugao.

Shipping

In the world and Asia-Pacific perspective, the Indian shipbuilding industry is quite small. In 1995, Japan built 394 ships of 8.4 million DWT for domestic purpose and 124 ships of 6.2 million DWT for export trade. Similarly, South Korea built 43 ships of 2.2 million DWT for domestic sailings and 100 ships of 7.9 million DWT for export trade. During the same year, 1,128 ships of 33.9 million DWT were built worldwide while in India, the Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. has built only 109 ships since 1952. Cochin Shipyard Ltd., the biggest in India, has built seven ships and 30 small crafts since 1972 and the Hooghly Dock and Port Engineers Ltd. has built 27 ships since 1984.

Ship-Repairing

Ship-repairing has been an adjunct activity of the shipyards and ports. However, over the years, it has progressed considerably and has been found profitable. The projects identified for private sector participation, too, have evoked positive response. This is an indicator of the bright prospects of the industry.

India can claim to have a 3,000 yearlong unbroken maritime history However, the maritime history of modern India began in 1840, with the setting up of the Bombay Steam Navigation Company, the first steamer company of the country Other notable steamer were, the Tata Line in 1894, the Swadeshi Company in 1906, the Bengal Steamship Company in 1907 and the Scindia Steam Navigation Company in 1919 shipping in India witnessed a very difficult phase between 1925-35. Thereafter, it picked up gradually. On December 31, 1947 the Indian shipping tonnage was 1.92 lakh GRT (of which the coastal was 1.19 GRT and the overseas was 0.73 lakh GRT).

Development of Shipping

In 1950-51, the total Indian tonnage was merely 0.39 MGRT (million gross registered tonnes). The First Five-Year Plan sought to reserve the coastal trade for Indian vessels exclusively so as to ensure their greater participation in overseas trade. The aim was achieved with the enactment of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1958.

Bulk goods carried by coastal shipping were low-freight commodities like coal, cement, salt etc. As the railway freights for these commodities were less, the railways were a preferred mode of dispatch. The Second Five-Year Plan sought to divert some traffic from the railways to coastal shipping. Another objective of the Second Plan was to secure a higher share of Indian overseas trade for Indian ships. The Chartering Wing, TRANS CHART, was set up in 1960 to fulfill this objective. Another broad objective of the Plan was to build a fleet of tankers to meet the increasing wet cargo requirements. In 1968, the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) was set up to fulfill this and several other objectives.