The Bengal Chamber organized its annual event for the Shipping Industry titled, “Seminar on Coastal Shipping – The Road Ahead" on Friday, 4th July 2014 in the Chamber premises. The focus was to deliberate on the importance of coastal shipping in India and its impact on the economic development of our country.

Capt. S B Mazumder, Chairperson, Shipping Committee, BCC&I welcomed the inaugural speakers on the dais and Dr. Alok Roy, Senior Vice President, BCC&I delivered the Welcome Speech at the Inaugural Session. The other speakers on the dais were Dr. Gautam Chatterjee, IAS, Director General of Shipping, Directorate General of Shipping, Ministry of Shipping, Government of India and Mr. R P S Kahlon, IAS, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), Ministry of Shipping, Government of India.

The other key speakers of the seminar were Mr. S Hazara, Former Chairman and Managing Director, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI); Mr. V.K. Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Shreyas Shipping Pvt. Ltd; Mr. Ashok K Shrivastava, Chief Executive Officer– Shipping Services, All Cargo Shipping Co Pvt. Ltd; Mr. Philip Mathews, LOTS Shipping Ltd.; Mr. Dibyendu Bose, Group Director (Investments and New Ventures), Tata Steel Limited; Mr. Julian Michael Bevis, Senior Director, Group Relations, The Maersk Group; Dr. K G S Sarma, Head - Ports and Water Resources, Ports & Harbour Division, RITES Ltd.; Mr. Ashish Gupta, Chief - Customer Services Division, Tata Steel Ltd.; Mr. Saibal De, Director and CEO,IL&FS Maritime Infrastructure Company Ltd. and Mr. Prahlad Tanwar, Director - Transport & Logistics, KPMG.

Dr. Gautam Chatterjee, IAS, Director General of Shipping observed that the office of the Directorate General of Shipping was closely working with the Ministry of Shipping for development of Coastal Shipping in India as this mode of transportation is the most viable mode of transportation as it helps in decongestion of roads and rail traffic simultaneously thereby significantly saving energy costs. Besides, he mentioned that the Indo-Bangladesh bilateral trade is now about to take off through the coastal route as the Bangladeshi Government has agreed to the Indian regulations for Coastal Shipping. The Indian industry representatives feel that trading with Bangladesh would be much more cost effective and it would also increase the trade volumes in the near future.

Mr. R P S Kahlon, IAS, Chairman, Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) observed that KoPT, being the only riverine port in the country, would come forward for development of coastal shipping in India and that KoPT was ready to work with all stakeholders (Government, Industry, and others).

Overall, the seminar was attended by a large number of relevant delegates comprising port users, trade representatives, coastal ship operators/owners, barge operators/owners/manufacturers, industry representatives, experts, policy makers, researchers, academicians and others. The total number of delegates for the seminar was 150 plus.

The seminar has helped the Chamber to work out an issue-based action plan based on which further initiatives could be taken for bringing developments in Coastal Shipping in India, which would provide immense benefit to the shipping industry and especially to those industries which are end users of coastal shipping.