On 12 September, the Indian Prime Minister inaugurated India’s second riverine Multi Modal terminal, built at Sahibganj in Jharkhand, in the eastern part of the country. Built within a record time of two years, this is the second of the three Multi Modal Terminals on river Ganga under Jal Marg Vikas Project.
H-Energy Global, Indian natural gas company, signed a Port Service Agreement (PSA) with Kakinada Seaports Limited (KSPL), for the development of an LNG regasification and reloading terminal at Kakinada Port on India’s East Coast.
The NGO Shipbreaking platform reported that two shipbreaking workers were recently killed at Indian beaching yards. Both yards have applied for recognition under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation.
The Hindu Business Line reports that an Indian official stated that India is thinking of not imposing the IMO 2020 sulphur regulations in its domestic waters, following the example that was firstly set by Indonesia, who then backed out.
Novatek, Russian gas producer, signed a Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Indian natural gas companies Petronet LNG and H-Energy Global. The deal set the sale of LNG from Russia to India. Both agreements were signed under the auspices of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, and coincided with the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia for summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The port authorities, based on specific intel inputs by the security services, have cautioned all Merchant Shipping operating in and around the Gulf of Kutch and in particular Kandla and Mundra ports on the possibility of underwater attacks by potential terror organisations.
On 22 August, during the state visit to France of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an agreement was signed by CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Sivan K, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), to start development and production of a constellation of satellites, to track tracking ships continuously.
India claims that it has become the first country in the world to issue Biometric Seafarer Identity Document (BSID), capturing the facial bio-metric data of seafarers. Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, MoS (I/C) Shipping and Chemical & Fertilizers, initiated the project in New Delhi, on August 28. He also handed over the new BSID cards to five Indian seafarers.
As the Directorate General of Shipping, Mumbai informed, it has issued a circular on August 21 regarding its grievance redressal mechanism, as well as registration of complaints from Indian seafarers. In order to overcome procedural delays and expedite resolution of seafarers, grievances, the grievance redressal mechanism is being launched online for registering grievance and obtaining response thereon.
Essar Ports informed that higher capacity utilisation at its recently commissioned terminals at Salaya and Vizag, as well as an increase in third-party cargo will be the two key factors that will help the company achieve its target of handling 60 million tonnes of cargo by 31 March 2020.
