The Ministry of Shipping has sought comments from the Indian Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) on a change in draft to Indian Cabotage rules. The comments have to be reached by July 13th 2015.
Cabotage means the right to operate sea, air, or other transport services within a particular territory. In this case it mostly deals with the reservation of coastal trade for national flag vessels. It is mostly applied in all the countries for certain reasons as to protect the domestic shipping industry from foreign competition and also for the purpose of national security.
With the objective to (i) increase aggregation of EXIM container cargo and Empties on East coast of India, so that ports get higher proportion of gateway traffic and, (ii) increase coastal traffic movement through specialized vessels such as Ro-Ro, Hybrid Ro-Ro, Ro-Pax, Pure Car Carriers, Pure Car & Truck Carriers, LNG vessels and Over-Dimensional Cargo or Project Cargo Carriers which are in short supply in India, the Ministry of Shipping has prepared a draft policy note on relaxation of cabotage restrictions.
