- The process of registering a ship will now be completed in seven days if all documents are in order, says D-G Shipping.
- The digital drive will help promote ease of doing business.
- Ship owners are not required to visit the ship registrar’s office for registering their ships.
In a digitalisation drive, the government has made ship registrations online, reports the Hindu Business Line.
The drive pledges to complete the entire registration process within seven days, which used to take up to one year earlier.
“Everything is online now. Within seven days, if all the documents are in order, the ship will be registered,” said Captain Daniel Joseph, nautical surveyor in the Directorate-General of Shipping, the country’s maritime administration.
Business at ease
It will help promote ease of doing business because ship owners were finding it difficult to get their ships registered.
There was no transparency, everything was manual and the entire process used to take three months to one year, he added.
Two ships — Sagar Energy owned by S S Offshore and Blossom owned by Seven Islands Shipping — have been registered through the online mode.
Two more ships are in the process of being registered digitally.
Registration process
Registering a ship in India typically goes through 7-8 processes, with each taking as much as 30 days. There was no timeline for any of the processes.
Now, each of these processes will be completed within a timeline of 24 hours.
- A ship will be allotted a call sign name and call sign number which are to be carved on the ship within a day.
- Then, the ship owner can call for survey and within 24 hours, the survey will be completed and a certificate will be issued online.
- Once that is done, the ship owner can go for tonnage certificate. This can also be applied online and it will be issued within 24 hours.
- After the tonnage certificate is issued, the certificate of inspection has to be obtained for the vessel.
“Like this, step-by-step, everything will be done within seven days,” Joseph stated.
Ship owners are not required to visit the ship registrar’s office in the mercantile marine department attached to the DG Shipping for registering their ships.
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Source: Hindu Business Line
