Govt okays Rs 70K-crore maritime package

In a major boost to the maritime sector, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 69,725-crore package for India’s shipbuilding industry.

“The package introduces a four-pillar approach designed to strengthen domestic capacity, improve long-term financing, promote greenfield and brownfield shipyard development, enhance technical capabilities and skilling, and implement legal, taxation, and policy reforms to create a robust maritime infrastructure,” an official statement said.

With a total fund of Rs 24,736 crore, the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme (SBFAS) will be extended until March 31, 2036. It aims to encourage shipbuilding in India.

A National Shipbuilding Mission will also be set up to manage all related initiatives.

The statement said the Shipbuilding Development Scheme (SbDS), with a budgetary outlay of Rs 19,989 crore, aimed to expand domestic shipbuilding capacity to 4.5 million gross tonnage annually, support mega shipbuilding clusters, infrastructure expansion, establish the India Ship Technology Centre under the Indian Maritime University, and provide risk coverage, including insurance support for shipbuilding projects.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for ‘atmanirbharta’ in the Shipping sector, saying India pays a staggering $75 billion or approximately Rs 6 lakh crore every year to foreign shipping companies for their services.

“Till 50 years ago, our trade was carried out by 40 per cent ships made in India, but this has now come down to just 5 per cent,” the Prime Minister had pointed out.

India holds 0.06 per cent of the total global shipbuilding market and is ranked 20th in the industry, but aims to break into the top ten ranking by 2030 and top 5 by 2047.