Asia/Pacific News
New Player for Indian Coastal Shipping
A logistics services provider is joining India's growing coastal shipping industry, buying two second-hand ships to serve small ports along the coast and possibly establishing its own terminals at some of the ports, Indian newspaper Deccan Chronicle reports.
"We are planning to have four ships, all Indian flagged vessels, so that we can operate them for coastal shipping," said Xavier Britto, chairman of the company, Indev Group.
Britto said the service would include two ships travelling from the west coast to east coast and two moving in the other direction, stopping at Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal to load and unload cargo.
Transporting cargo by sea reduces oil consumption and allows for lower prices, according to Indev Chief Operating Officer P.T. Balaji.
"We would be buying multi utility ships so that we can handle containarised cargo, vehicles like cars and buses as well as general cargo," he said.
"Our initial investment would be around $100 million to acquire the ships and register them in India.
The Times of India reports that Indev plans to set up a Rs 75 crore ($12.7 million) container freight station at Visakhapatnam within the next two years.
"With this, we hope to address the last mile connectivity in logistics," Britto said.
Two companies, Poompuhar Shipping Corporation and Allcargo Global Logistics, are already active in coastal shipping in India, according to the Deccan Chronicle story.
India's Director-General of Shipping, Gautam Chatterjee, said in April that the nation should support the coastal shipping industry to divert cargo from road and rail transport.
