Indian Fleet

Indian Fleet

• Indian shipping tonnage, which was only 1.92 lakh GT on the eve of independence, now stands at 8.83 million GT and 14.85 million DWI.

• The fleet consists of 872 vessels (282 overseas vessels with 7.89 million GT and 13.55 m DWT and 590 coastal vessels with 0.5m GT and 0.99 m DWT.

Ports

• India has a 7617 km long coastline.

• About 95% of India’s foreign trade by volume and 70% by value is handled by these ports.

• There are 12 major ports in India, viz. Kolkata (including Haldia), Paradip, Visakhapatnam , Chennai, Ennore and Tuticorin on the East coast; and Cochin, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Jawaharlal Nehru (JNPT), Mumbai and Kandla on the West Coast.

• There are 187 minor / intermediate ports under the administrative control of concerned maritime state government.

• Out of these, about 43 ports handle cargo.

• The aggregate cargo hanled at major ports during 2006-2007 was approximately 464 million tones.

Inland Waterways

• India has about 14,500 km of navigable waterways which comprise rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks, etc.

• About 44 million tones of cargo is being moved annually by Inland Water Transport (IWT), a fuel efficient and environment friendly mode.

• The Inland Waterways Authority of Indi (IWAI) came into existence on 27 October 1986 for development and regulation of inland waterways for shipping and navigation.

• The head office of the Authority is located at Noida. The authority also has its regional offices at Patna, Kolkata, Guwahati and Kochi and sub-offices at Allahabad, Varanasi, Bhagaipur, Farakka and Kollam.

• Three inland waterways have been declared as National Waterways.

They are

(1)NW-1: Allahabad-Haldia stretch (1620 km) of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hoogly river system;

(2)NW-2 Sadiay-Dhubri stretch (891km) of the Brahmaputra river; and

(3)NW-3: Kottapuram-Kollam stretch of the West Coast Canal along with Champakara and Udyogamandal Canals (205km).