Soon, Farakka to get ship repairing facility

The ministry of Shipping will set up seven ship repairing facilities, one of them in Farakka.

The ministry has identified some areas close to ports and will soon upgrade them to ship repairing facilities.

"It is a collaborative operation between the Centre and Cochin Shipyard Limited, a PSU which is the largest ship-building and maintenance facility in India. It was decided in a recent meeting in Goa that ship repairing facilities would be developed alongside the ports," said a senior officer of Union Ministry of Shipping on the sidelines of the Inland Waterways Transport in India and Coastal Shipping Summit, organized by Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on Tuesday.

Pravir Pandey, Vice-Chairman and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) said that there are many ship building facilities in India but the number of ship repairing facilities should be increased. "So we decided to develop more such facilities," Pandey said.

The facility at Farakka will be developed near the navigational lock gate, which is being developed by a private infrastructure development company. The facility will be developed under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

"Pandu in Assam, Mumbai, Goa, Kandla, Patna and Farakka are some of the identified ports where ship repairing facilities are going to be set up. The project can get financial support from Sagarmala project for port industrialisation if the guidelines are properly maintained," said the senior officer.

The officers of the ministry of Shipping believe that there are many ports in India where lack of infrastructure has become a concern. The ministry will use vacant spaces to develop ship repairing facilities.

"The inland waterways transport is only 6 percent in India which we are trying to increase at least 10-12 percent. We have geographical advantages, so cruise shipping projects would be apt for this country," an IWAI officer said.

Recently, the ministry of Shipping appointed a consultant to conduct research on the prospect of cruise shipping in India. The report is to be submitted by the end of June, the officer said. Goa, Chennai and New Mangalore will have new cruise ship ports. Mumbai will have its second such port.