Government's relaxing of norms for transshipment has not only helped India arrest a sizeable chunk of its container cargo going to ports like Colombo, Singapore and Jebel Ali but also forced a few foreign ports to cut rates, according to a top official.
India has been trying hard to arrest diversion of container cargo to transshipment hubs at foreign ports.
In May, the Centre relaxed cabotage norms allowing foreign ships, chartered by Indian citizens or companies, to ply on local routes for transshipment purposes.
After the relaxation, India is witnessing an upswing in transshipment volumes and if the trend continues it would emerge as a transshipment hub, Shipping Secretary Gopal Krishna told PTI.
"Diversion of Indian cargo for transshipment to neighbouring foreign ports has definitely come down and its impact will be visible by the end of the fiscal and it is bound to substantially come down in the next fiscal," he said.
The figure is likely to reach 2 million tonne, from about 0.8 MT and the trends have started showing, he said.
"The transshipment volumes in India has risen to 16,543 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent unit) in July from 11,589 TEUs in June. This is a 43 per cent jump in a month," said Container Shipping Lines Association (CSLA) that represents 31 container shiplines.
CSLA Chairman Deepak Tewari told PTI: "The policy reform has been very encouraging for container shiplines and we are confident to take the 16,543 TEU volumes recorded in July to 200,000 TEUs within six to eight months time."
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