Insa Concern Over Vessel Acquisition Plan

The outgoing INSA president Deepak Chowgule in the association's annual review has said that the working group had recommended this target due to fear of resource constraints. He reiterated in his speech at the recent INSA annual general meeting that this will not allow Indian ships to carry even the 1995-96 level of 29 per cent of India's overseas trade.

This had in fact come down from 33 per cent in 1994-95. Indian ships must carry 50 per cent of the overseas dry bulk trade, 40 per cent of the liner and container trades and 100 per cent of the strategic oil trade, said Chowgule in the report.

Currently, Indian ships carry 20 per cent of the dry bulk cargo, 60.4 per cent of the oil cargo and 8.8 per cent of the liner cargo.

The industry also questioned the wisdom of setting a fleet acquisition target as no precise data on trade projections were available. In the event of such a target being set it should only be indicative and reviewed annually.

INSA was fully supported in the deliberations at the working group by representatives of SCICI and the ministry of commerce,