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A well-knit and coordinated system of transport plays an important role in the sustained economic growth of a country. Transport routes are the basic economic arteries of the country. Transport system is regarded as the controller of the national economy and provides a very important link between production and consumption. The amount of traffic moving in a country is a measure of its progress.
In a country like India, the importance of transport is more because of its vastness as well as varied nature of geographical conditions. In India, it is also a source of national integration. The present Indian transport system comprises several modes including rail, road, coastal shipping, air transport, etc. Transport has recorded a substantial growth over the years both in terms of length and output of the system.
Railways:
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The railways in India provide the principal mode of transportation for freight and passengers. It brings together people from the farthest corners of the country and makes possible the conduct of business, sightseeing, pilgrimage and education. Indian railways have been a great integrating force during the last 150 years. It has bound the economic life of the country and helped in accelerating the development of industry and agriculture.
From a very modest beginning in 1853, when the first train steamed off from Mumbai to Thane, a distance of 34 km, Indian Railways have grown into a vast network of 6,906 stations spread over a route length of 63,122 km with a fleet of 7,681 locomotives, 39,852 passenger service vehicles, 4,904 other coaching vehicles and 2, 14,760 wagons as on 31 March 2003.
The growth of Indian Railways in the 150 years of its existence is thus phenomenal. It has played a vital role in the economic, industrial and social development of the country. The network runs multi-gauge operations extending over 63,122 route-kilometres. The gauge-wise route and track length of the system has been given in Table 11.1.
About 23 per cent of the route kilometre, 34 per cent of running track kilometre and 34 per cent of total track kilometre is electrified. The network is divided into sixteen zones and further sub-divided into division. Divisions are the basic operating units.
The main objectives of railways planning have been to develop the transport infrastructure to carry the projected quantum of traffic and meet the developmental needs of the economy. Since the inception of the planned era in 1950-51, Indian Railways have implemented nine five-year plans, apart from annual plans in some years. During the plans, emphasis was laid on a comprehensive programme of system modernisation.
With capacity being stretched to the full, investment of cost-effective technological changes become inescapable in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for rail transport. Along with the major thrust directed towards rehabilitation of assets, technological changes and up-gradation of standards were initiated in important areas of track, locomotives, passenger coaches, wagon bogie designs, signaling and telecommunication. Progress of railway traffic and inputs is shown in Table 11.2.
Passenger Traffic:
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Passengers originating had risen from 1,284 million in 1950-51 to 4,971 million in 2002-03 and passenger kilometre from 66.52 bill ion in 1950-51 to 515 billion in 2002-03. Despite constraint of resources, the Railways have been able to cope with increasing demand of passenger traffic. Railways are the premier mode of passenger transport both for long distance and suburban traffic.
During 2000-01, Indian Railways introduced 99 new trains, extended the run of 88 trains and increased the frequency of 14 trains in non-suburban sector. Similarly, in the suburban sector, Railways introduced 89 new trains. Besides, 15 DMU/diesel Hauled Push Pull Trains and 22 main line EMU services were also introduced during the year.
Freight Traffic:
Rapid progress in industrial and agricultural sectors has generated a higher level of demand for rail transport particularly in core sectors like coal, iron and steel ores, petroleum products and essential commodities such as food grains, fertilisers, cement, sugar, salt, edible oils, etc. Revenue freight traffic increased from 73.2 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 518.7 million tonnes in 2002-03.
Transport effort measured in terms of net tonne kilometres (NT km) increased from 38 billion in 1950-51 to 353.19 billion in 2002-03.
Some of the measures taken for improvement are:
(i) Line capacity augmentation on certain critical sectors and modernisation of signalling system;
(ii) Measures such as unit train operation for bulk commodities like coal;
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(iii) Increase in roller-bearing equipped wagons;
(iv) Increase in railing loads to 4,500 tonnes;
(v) Operation of ‘UNI-GAUGE’ on Indian Railways;
(vi) Strengthening the track structure by providing heavier and stronger rails and concrete sleepers; and
(vii) Production of prototype electric locomotive of 5,000 HP for freight operation by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works.
Distribution of Railways:
The distribution pattern of the railways in India varied from region to region. The general distribution pattern of railways has been depicted in Figure 11.1. The pattern of distribution of railways in four geographical regions of India is as follows:
North Indian Plain:
This region has a very dense network of railways from Amritsar to Kolkata. This plain region is economically well developed and also a highly populated region of India. The main focal points of the railway in this region are Delhi, Kanpur, Mughal Sarai, Lucknow, Agra and Patna. Delhi, the capital of India is very well connected with all parts of the country, including major ports like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai through superfast trains.
Peninsular India:
In this region, the hilly and plateau terrain hinders the development of railway. But railways have developed properly in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. However, some trunk routes cross the peninsula and provide efficient rail service between Mumbai-Chennai, Chennai-Kochi, Chennai-Delhi, Mumbai- Kolkata and Chennai-Hyderabad.
Himalayan Region:
The rugged terrain, hill, and valley topography, backward economy and sparse population are the factors responsible for the thin railways network in this region. There are three narrow gauge railway lines in the Himalayan region. These are Kalka-Shimla, Pathankot-Kangra and Siliguri-Darjeeling. The Kalka-Shimla Railway built in 1903 winds itself through picturesque country from Kalka to Shimla over a distance of 97 km.
It has 103 tunnels, totaling 8 km in length; the longest tunnel is 1,144 metres. The Siliguri-Darjeeling Railway is 82 km long and was constructed in 1878. There is practically no railway line in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. However, plans are afoot to provide rail links to Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
Similarly, the government has taken up an ambitious and challenging programme of constructing 53.2 km long Jammu Tawi-Udhampur railway line and 291 km long Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula railway line. The proposed rail line runs through difficult hilly terrain and its construction involves 21 and 80 tunnels respectively, that too on high and difficult terrain.
Coastal Plains:
There is a distinct contrast in the rail network between eastern and western coastal plains. The eastern coastal plain is quite wide and permits the construction of railways, as a result of which, there is a long trunk route along the east coast from Kolkata to Chennai. But, in western coastal plain, the terrain is not suitable due to outcrops of Western Ghats. However, the completion of Konkan railway line from Roha to Mangalore is dreams come true.
It passes through several tunnels and over numerous bridges. This line has the longest tunnel in the country: 6.5 km long, about 23 km south of Ratnagiri. It has become the lifeline of the western coastal plain with a total saving in travel distance between Mangalore-Mumbai (1,050 km), Mangalore-Ahmedabad (1,218 Km), Mangalore-Delhi (707 km) and Kochi-Mumbai (437 km).
Roads:
India has one of the longest road networks in the world aggregating to about 3.3 million km at present. The Ninth Plan laid emphasis on a coordinated and balanced development of road network in the country under:
(i) Primary road system covering National Highways;
(ii) Secondary and feeder road system covering State Highways and major district roads; and
(iii) Rural roads including village roads and other district roads.
Substantial outlays were proposed for road development in the rural and tribal areas. Under the Ninth Plan, the allocation envisaged was Rs. 8,862.02 crore (at 1996 price level) for central sector roads programme including Rs. 3,576.79 crore (at 1996 price level) for externally aided projects as approved by the Planning Commission. This was, however, raised to Rs. 17,748.82 crore for central sector roads programme including Rs. 4,815.70 crore for externally aided projects during the course of the Plan. The Tenth Plan outlay proposed for central sector roads is Rs. 59,000 crore including Rs. 24,000 crore from internal and extra budgetary resources.
Growth and Development of Roads:
The history of roads in India is as old as civilisation. Roads have been existing in India for the last 5,000 years. In early stages of Indian history, Ashoka and Chandragupta made efforts to construct roads. But, the real progress was made during the Mughal period. A number of roads were laid during the Sultanate and Mughal period. Most of the modern trunk routes follow the Mughal routes. These routes were primarily constructed for strengthening and consolidating the empire.
One such road was constructed by Sher Shah Suri, which connects Peshawar to Kolkata. It was named as Grant Trunk (GT) Road and joined Amritsar with Kolkata after partition of India in 1947. During the British period, a network of roads has not only been planned but developed. The first serious attempt to develop roadways was made in 1943 when Nagpur Plan was drawn.
This plan envisaged increasing of the kilometrage of major roads to 1, 96,800 km and of other roads to 3, 32,800 km by 1953. The highlight of the plan was that no village in a developed agricultural region should be more than 8 km from a major road or 3 km away from any other road while the average distance of villages from a major road should be less than 3.2 km. In a non-agricultural region, these distances were fixed at 32.8 and 10 km respectively. This plan was implemented and its targets were more or less achieved by 1961.
During 1950-92, road length in India grew at a rate of about 4.2 per cent per annum. The end of 1991-92, India had 20, 40,985 km of total road length, of which only 52.5 per cent was surfaced. The long distance traffic is served by the National Highways and State Highways, which accounted for about 1.7 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively of the total road length.
Only about 45.8 per cent of the total villages were connected by all weather roads. After achieving the objectives of the Nagpur Plan, another plan known as Twenty-Year Road Plan was drawn in 1961. It aimed at increasing the road length from 6.56 lakh km to 10.60 lakh km and the density to 32 km to per 100 sq km by 1981. Table 11.3 indicates the total road length of India:
Table 11.3 shows that there has been over seven times increase in total length of road in India between 1957 and 2001. While the share of State Highways has remained more or less the same, i.e., about 6 per cent, the share of National Highways was only 1.65 per cent. But inspite of lower percentage, National Highways plays an important role not only in handling the road traffic but in overall economic development of the country, thus required special mention.
National Highways:
The main roads, which are constructed and maintained by Central Public Works Department (CPWD), are known as the National Highways. These roads are meant for inter-state and strategic defence movements and connect the state capitals, big cities, important ports, big railway junctions and linkup with border roads. The length of National Highways increased from 19,811 km in 1951 to 58,112 km in 2001. Nearly 40 per cent of the road traffic in India is carried on these highways. The whole of India is covered by National Highways as shown in Figure 11.2.
The Central Government is responsible for the National Highway system totalling a length of 58,112 km. In order to give a boost to the economic development of the country, a massive programme for 4/6 laning of about 13,000 km of National Highways has been taken up since 1999 under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and is targeted to be completed by December 2007 at an estimated cost of Rs 54,000 crore (at 1999 prices).
This is perhaps one of the largest programmes of road development ever taken up in any country. The project is being implemented by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
NHDP has following two components:
(i) Golden Quadrilateral comprising the National Highways connecting the four metro cities, viz., Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The component has a total length of 5,846 km.
(ii) North-South corridor comprising the National Highways connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari including Kochi-Salem Spur and East-West Corridor comprising the National Highways connecting Silchar to Porbandar. The project has a total length of about 7,300 km and is scheduled for completion by December 2007.
Four laning of about 400 km of roads for providing connectivity to the ports of Paradip, Haldia, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai and Ennore, Tuticorin, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Kandla has been taken up by NHAI under Port Connectivity Programme.
Apart from capacity augmentation by 4/6 laning of National Highways (NHDP), the government has also undertaken the programme for improvement of riding quality of National Highways. The programme commenced in 1999. At that time it was assessed that about 33,000 km of National Highways (balance length apart from NHDP) need improvement of riding quality.
In order to provide reasonable service level to traffic, within the available resources, a programme for improvement of riding quality, which is basically partial strengthening, was undertaken. The programme was funded under both plan and non-plan funds. About 22,000 km of National Highways have since been improved under the programme. Riding quality of the balance length of National Highways is targeted to be improved in the next two years.
The Ministry of Surface Transport has also been implementing projects funded with the assistance of World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC). Six projects in Punjab, Haryana, Orissa, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have been completed in June 2001 from World Bank credit/loan assistance of US$ 306 million. Another loan of US$ 210 million for West Bengal Corridor Development Project has been approved by ADB recently.
Projects under three JBIC loans are in progress and are likely to be completed by December 2003. The NHAI has five projects under the loan assistance of USS 245 million from ADB in Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Two loans of US$ 180 million and US$ 240 million have been tied up from ADB for Surat-Manor section in Maharashtra and Western Transport Corridor Development Project in Karnataka respectively. Another two loans of US$ 516 million and US$ 589 million have also been tied up from the World Bank for development of NH 2 in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
State Sector Roads:
State Highways and district rural roads are the responsibility of State Governments and are maintained by various agencies in states and union territories. Roads are being developed in rural areas under Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) and Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The objective is to link all villages with a population of more than 500 with all weather roads by 2007. The government also assists in development of certain selected roads in states through financial assistance from Central Road Fund.
Border Roads Organisation:
Raised in May 1960 for development of roads of strategic importance in the northern and north-eastern border areas, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) completed almost 45 years of dedicated service to the nation. Since its inception up to March 2004, it has completed 31,934 km of formation works, surfaced 38,783 km of roads, executed, Rs. 3,474 crore worth of permanent works and constructed permanent bridges totalling a length of 20,095 running metres.
The BRO is a premier construction agency today, not only of roads but also of airfields, bridges, buildings, hospitals and schools. Development of the 160 km long Tamu-Kalemyo-Kalewa road in Myanmar to intermediate width specification undertaken in 1997 has been completed and handed over to Myanmar government in February 2001.
Currently, the works in 19 states are being executed by the BRO. Double laning of the NH 58 Sector Rishikesh-Joshimath- Mana in Uttaranchal totalling 300 km length had been commenced during previous year. The 478 km long road on NH 1A including two tubes of Jawahar Tunnel, a strategic link between J&K and the rest of the country is being improved. Four-laning of the stretch of NH 1A from Jammu to Srinagar and of 17.2 km stretch in Jammu-Pathankot sector have been entrusted to the BRO.
Besides North Eastern Council (NEC) roads, totalling a length of 1,642 km are under construction. The works of Indo-Bangladesh Border Roads (Phase II) totalling 781 km and Fencing Works (Phase II) of 1,337 km in Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram entrusted to the BRO have commenced. Several projects like accommodation for a battalion of the Assam Rifles at Kaithalmanbi, Manipur, the North-Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, Itanagar and seven Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in the Border States are presently under construction.
The BRO completed 15 major permanent bridges during 2001-02 and 106 such bridges are under construction. As of now, 21 National Highways of 5,105 km length are in various stages of development and maintenance under the BRO. A total length of 18,800 km of road is under the maintenance of the BRO.
Super National Highways:
The Ministry of Surface Transport, Government of India has planned to build Super National Highways in order to fulfil the growing demand of traffic in the country. About 14,000 km of Super National Highways are proposed to be built for connecting major cities and ports of the country. This involves a huge investment of Rs. 1, 56,000 crores, which the government cannot afford to spend.
Therefore, these highways will be built by the private sector. In return, the entrepreneurs will be allowed to collect toll fee for a certain number of years, after that the facility will be reverted back to the government. This concept is known as ‘Build, Operate and Transfer’ (BOT).
The proposed Super National Highways are as follows (Figure 11.3):
(1) Maharaja Agrasen Marg:
SNH1: Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore-Kochi Thiuvananthapuram-Kanniyakumari
SNH 1C: Link to Marmagao Port
SNH 1D: Link to Mangalore Port
(2) Maharishi Balmiki Marg:
SNH 1 A: Jaipur-Agra
(3) Jhulelal Marg:
SNH IB: Ahmedabad-Kandla
(4) Guru Gobind Singh Marg:
SNH 2: Amritsar-Chandigarh-Delhi-Kanpur-Patna-Dhanbad-Kolkota-Bhubaneshwar-Chennai
SNH 2A: Link to Halida Port
SNH 2B: Link to Paradeep Port
SNH 2C: Link to Vishakapatanam Port
(5) Tiruvalluvar Marg:
SNH 2: Chennai-Kanyakumari
SNH 2D: Link to Tuticonn Port
SNH 3: Srinagar-Jammu-Pathankot
(6) Sant Ravi Das Marg:
SNH 3: Pathankot-Jalandhar
(7) Ravindranath Tagore Marg:
SNH 4: Patna-Guwahati
(8) Bhagwan Mahaveer Marg:
SNH 5: Delhi-Agra-Nagpur-Hyderabad-Bangalore
(9) Bhagwan Parshuram Marg:
SNH 6: Mumbai-Nagpur-Rourkela-Dhanbad
(10) Swami Dayanand Marg:
SNH 7: Bangalore-Chennai
Air Transport:
Air transportation in India made a humble beginning in 1911 when airmail operation commenced over a little distance of 10 km between Allahabad and Naini. The British, French and Dutch introduced air transport in 1929-30. Indian National Airways was formed in 1933. By the end of World War II, major cities like Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Karachi and Lahore (now in Pakistan) and some other places were provided with air service.
The actual network of air transport has begun only after independence. In 1953, the air transport was nationalised and two corporations were formed: the Air India and Indian Airlines. Vayudoot Airlines was set up in 1981 to augment the air transport in the country, similarly Pawan Hans helicopter services was started in 1985.
The private air services had also started in 1990 and played feeder role to Indian Airlines. There are 93 airports and 28 civil air terminals at defence airfields and most of the major cities of the country are having air transport. The pattern of air routes in India has been depicted in Figure 11.4.
As on 31 May 2002, India has bilateral Air Services Agreements with 97 countries:
i. Air India owns a fleet of 23 aircraft consisting of six B747-400, two B747-300 (Combi), four B747-200, three A300B4 and eight A310-300.
ii. In addition, Air India has inducted five A310-300 aircraft on dry lease basis (two from Singapore Airlines, two from GECAS and one from ILFC) and has plans to induct three more A310-300 aircraft on dry lease basis by the year-end.
iii. As on 31st March 2002, the staff strength of Air India is 16,776.
iv. Air India operates to 35 stations (12 domestic and 23 international) with its own aircraft. Air-India also has cooperative arrangements such as CS/BSA/JV with foreign airlines, serving 20 international destinations (including 09 destinations also served by Air India with its own aircraft).
v. Air India carried 2.85 million passengers during the period April 2001 to February 2002.
Indian Airlines is the major domestic air carrier of the country. It operates to 63 domestic stations (including 2 seasonal stations, i.e., Jaisalmer and Puttaparthy) with its wholly owned subsidiary Alliance Air. Indian Airlines also operates to 16 international stations, viz., Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lampur, Yangon, Kathmandu, Colombo, Dhaka, Male, Kuwait, Sharjah, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras-al-khaimah, Muscat, Doha and Bahrain. Indian Airlines has a fleet of 57 aircrafts: 7 A-300s, 36 A-320s, 11 B-737s and 3 Dornier-228s including aircraft taken on lease. All B-737s aircraft are being operated by Alliance Air.
Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited:
Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. (PHHL) is the largest helicopter operator in India and one of the largest in Asia with a fleet strength of 29 helicopters: 3 Mi-172, 19 Duaphins AS365n, 3 Bell 206L4, 2 Bell 407 and 2 Robinsons R-44 helicopters. In addition, PHHL is operating and maintaining helicopters of other customers also. It has developed the helicopter market in India and provided a thrust to the industry as a whole.
Besides providing helicopter support services to the oil sector for its off-shore exploration operations, Pawan Hans also provides services to inaccessible areas and charter services for the promotion of tourism. Pawan Hans has been awarded ISO 9002 certification for its entire gamut of activities and is the first aviation company in India to achieve the same. The company achieved a total flying task of 18,307 hours in 2001-02 and has flown over 2,70,00 hours so far.
Civil Aviation:
The civil aviation sector has three main functional divisions: regulatory, infrastructure and operational. On the operational side Indian Airlines, Alliance Air (subsidiary of Indian Airlines), private scheduled airlines and air taxis provide domestic air services while Air India provides international air services.
Pawan Hans, renamed Pawan Helicopters Limited, provides helicopter services to ONGC in its off-shore operation and to inaccessible areas and difficult terrains. Indian Airlines operations also extend to the neighbouring countries, South East Asia and Middle East. India has been a member of International Civil Aviation Origination (ICAO) and is also on the Council of ICAO since its inception.
The government has ended the monopoly of Indian Airlines and Air India on the scheduled operations by repealing the Air Corporation Act, 1953. There are at present two private airlines (Sahara and Jet) operating on the domestic network rendering the passengers a wide choice of flights. Apart from this, at present, 38 companies are holing non-scheduled air taxi operators’ permit.
The policy on domestic transport service was approved in April 1997 according to which barriers to entry and exit from the sector have been removed; choice of aircraft type and size has been left to the operator; entry of serious entrepreneurs only has been ensured, and equity from foreign airlines, directly or indirectly, in this sector has been prohibited.
The existing policy on air taxi services providing for a route dispersal plan to ensure operation of a minimum number of services in the north-eastern region, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadeep and Jammu & Kashmir has been retained. An exercise has been undertaken to formulate a new civil aviation policy, which gives more emphasis to privatisation in civil aviation sector.
Cargo:
In order to help the Indian exporters and make their exports more competitive, the government had introduced in April 1999 an ‘open policy’ for cargo. Under this policy, foreign airlines or association of exporters can bring any freighters to the country for up-liftment of cargo. The government has also permitted market forces to determine cargo tariff, with IATA rates as the floor rates.
Tourist Charter Flights:
The tourist charter flights can land at all 12 designated international airports (namely Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Thiuvananthapuram) and four additional airports, namely, Agra, Jaipur, Varanasi and Port Blair. In addition, tourist charter flights may also be permitted to land at airports having customs and immigration facilities.
The minimum payment to the Indian tour operator by the foreign charter operator is US$ 400 per person, effective from 1st April 1998. However, for tourists from SAARC countries and Myanmar, the amount to be paid is 50 per cent of the aforesaid amount. During 2003-04 723 flights were operated bringing 1, 23,134 tourists to India.
Shipping:
Shipping plays an important role in the transport sector of India’s economy. Approximately, 90 per cent of the country’s trade volume (77 per cent in terms of value) is moved by sea. Presently, India lias the largest merchant shipping fleet among the developing countries and ranks 17th in the world in terms of shipping tonnage.
Indian shipping sector facilitates not only the transportation of national and international cargoes but also provides a variety of other services such as cargo handling services, ship building/repairing, freight forwarding, lighthouse facilities and training of maritime personnel. As on 1 April 2002, the net operative tonnage consisted of 560 ships totalling 6.82 million gross registered tonnages (GRT).
The salient features of India’s shipping policy are the promotion of national shipping to increase self-reliance in the carriage of country’s overseas trade and protection of stake holder’s interest in EXIM trade. India’s national flagships provide an essential means of transport for crude oil and petroleum product imports.
National shipping also acts as a second line of defence in times of emergency. Indian shipping makes significant contributions to the foreign exchange earnings of the country. During 2000-01, the gross earnings of Indian shipping companies by way of freight and charter hire income were in excess of Rs. 5,500 crore.
Shipping Companies:
There were 136 shipping companies in the country in operation as on 1 April 2002. Of these, 98 are engaged exclusively in coastal trade, 18 in overseas trade, and 20 in both coastal and overseas trade. Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), the biggest shipping line of the country had a merchant fleet of 91 vessels corresponding to 2.58 million GRT as on 1 April 2002 and operated on almost all maritime routes. Its tonnage accounts for about 40 per cent of the total Indian tonnage.
Major private sector shipping companies which own one lakh or more GRT are:
(i) Great Eastern Shipping Company Limited (8.82 lakh),
(ii) Essar Shipping Company Limited (7.35 lakh),
(iii) Chowgule Steamship Limited (2.25 lakh),
(iv) Varun Shipping Company Limited (1.79 lakh),
(v) Sanmar Shipping (1.70 lakh),
(vi) Surrendra Overseas Limited (1.54 lakh),
(vii) Radiant Shipping (1.20 lakh),
(viii) West Asia Maritime Limited (1.17 lakh),
(ix) Tolani Shipping Company (1.16 lakh GT), and
(x) South Indian Shipping Company Limited (1.06 lakh).
Shipping Corporation of India Limited:
Shipping Corporation of India Limited (SCI), a government owned public sector shipping company, was formed on 2 October 1961. The authorised capital of SCI is Rs. 450 crore and its paid up capital is Rs. 282.30 crore. SCI has a track record of making profit and has been earning substantial return on investment.
The company was accorded Mini Ratna status in February 2000. The gross earning of SCI during 2000-01 was Rs. 3,132.23 crore with a net profit of Rs. 382.60 crore. At present SCI owns and operates 91 vessels of 2.58 million GRT. The diversified fleet of SCI includes bulk carriers, crude and product tankers, general cargo vessels, cellular container vessels, offshore supply vessels, ammonia/1pg carriers, phosphoric acid/chemical carriers and passenger-cum-cargo vessels. SCI also mans and manages 26 ships on behalf of government organisations/departments.
SCI has also set up joint venture companies outside India to increase its business and to enter into new and more sophisticated areas. The company holds 49 per cent share in Irano-Hmd Shipping Company (IHSC), Tehran. Further, SCI has 20 per cent equity share in the joint venture company promoted by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), Japan for owning and operating an LNG vessel named ‘Lakshmi’.
With this, SCI has become the first Indian shipping company to venture into this new and highly sophisticated area of LNG transportation. SCI has also formed two joint venture companies, one each for the two LNG vessels, along with MOL, NYK and K Lines of Japan for construction of two LNG carriers for transporting LNG for the Petronet LNG Project.
Coastal Shipping:
Coastal shipping is an energy efficient, environment friendly and economical mode of transport in the Indian transport network and a crucial component for development of domestic industry and trade. India has 7,516.6 km long coastline (including 1,962 km of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and 132 km of Lakshadweep Islands), studded with 12 major and 189 minor and intermediary ports providing congenial and favourable conditions for the development of domestic transport infrastructure.
The government has finalized an action plan for the development of coastal shipping. In order to promote coastal shipping and sailing vessels industry, the home trade vessels and sailing vessels have been exempted from the payment of light dues vide gazette notification dated 8 September 2000 under the provision of the Lighthouse Act, 1927. Meanwhile, a study is being undertaken to assess the potential of coastal shipping and role of minor ports keeping in view the feasibility of routes and the supporting environment.
Inland Water Transport:
India has got about 14,500 km of navigable waterways which comprise rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks, etc. At present, however, a length of 3,700 km of major rivers is navigable by mechanised crafts but the length actually utilised is only about 2,000 km. As regards canals, out of 43,000 km of navigable canals, only 900 km is suitable for navigation by mechanised crafts. About 18 million tones of cargo is being moved annually by inland water transport (IWT), a fuel efficient and environment friendly mode.
The IWT is also known for higher employment generation potential. Its operations are currently restricted to a few stretches in the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly rivers, the Brahmaputra, the Barak River, the rivers in Goa, the backwaters in Kerala and the deltaic regions of the Godavari-Krishna Rivers. Besides the organised operations by mechanised vessels, country boats of various capacities also operate in various rivers and canals.
Inland Waterways Authority of India:
The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) constituted under the Inland Waterways Authority of India Act, 1985 (82 of 1985), came into existence on 27 October 1986 as a statutory body for development, maintenance, management and regulation of National Waterways in the country and to act as advisor to the Central and State Governments on matters relating to inland water transport. The head office of the IWAI is located at Noida in its own building. It also has its regional offices at Patna, Kolkata, Guwahati and Cochin and sub offices at Allahabad, Ballia, Bhagalpur, Farakka and Kollam.
National Waterways:
Considering the need to develop inland waterways and inland water transport to play its rightful role in the transport network of the country, the government had identified 10 important waterways for consideration to declare them as National Waterways. The Ganga between Allahabad and Haldia (1,620 km) on 27 October 1986, the Sadiya-Dhubri stretch of river Brahmaputra (891 km) on 26 October 1988 and the Kollam-Kottapuram stretch of West Coast Canal (168 km) along with Champakara Canal (14 km) and Udyogmandal Canal (22 km) in Kerala with effect from 1 February 1993 have so far been declared as National Waterways and the same are being developed for navigation by IWAI.
Techno-economic studies on many other waterways such as Godavari, Krishna, Barak, Sunderbans, Buckingham Canal, Brahmani East Coast Canal, DVC Canal, etc., have been completed and found viable. Out of these, IWAI have proposed that Godavari (Andhra Pradesh), Krishna (Andhra Pradesh), Barak (Assam), Buckingham Canal (Tamilnadu) and Brahmani East Coast Canal (Orissa) be declared as National Waterways. The proposals are under consideration of the government (Figure 11.5).
IWT Policy:
The Government of India has approved policy measures for promoting inland water transport which inter alia empower IWAI to raise bonds to mobilise funds from the market and to enter into commercial joint ventures to encourage investment in IWT sector. Policy guidelines for private sector participation have been formulated. The IWAI has formulated various schemes for creation of necessary IWT infrastructure and also for demonstration of the viability of IWT for creating awareness among the prospective private investors. Experimental cargo services are operated from Haldia Port to destinations in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with this objective.
Central Inland Water Transport Corporation:
The Central Inland Water Transport Corporation (CIWTC) with its headquarters at Kolkata was set up as a public sector undertaking in May 1967. The CIWTC is mainly engaged in transportation of goods by inland waterways in the Ganga- Bhairathi-Hooghly, Sunderbans and the Brahmaputra rivers.
They are operating regular cargo services between Kolkata and Pandu (near Guwahati), between Kolkata and Karimganj (Assam), Kolkata-Bangladesh and between Haldia and Patna. The government has initiated a revival plan for the CIWTC so that it can concentrate on its core activity of river transportation and become a viable entity.
Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade:
The Indo-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade, which came into operation in November 1972, has been renewed from time to time. This protocol was last renewed on 28 October 1999. The terms of the protocol are being extended from time to time.
This protocol facilitates operation of both Indian and Bangladesh vessels on the following inter-country and transit routes:
1. Kolkata-Pandu
2. Kolkata-Karimganj
3. Rajshahi-Dhulian
4. Pandu-Karimganj
Ports:
India has about 5,600 km of main coastline serviced by 12 major ports and about 181 other ports. The major ports are under the purview of the Central Government, while other ports (popularly termed as minor/intermediate ports) come under the jurisdiction of the respective State Governments. Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru at Nhava Shewa, Kandla, Mormugao, New Mangalore and Cochin are the major ports on the west coast and Kolkata/Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Ennore and Tuticorin the major ports on the east coast.
The capacity of the Indian ports increased from 20 million tonnes (MT) of cargo handling in 1951 to 390 MT as on 31 March 2004. At the beginning of the Ninth Plan, the capacity of major ports was about 220 MT. It is proposed to be increased to 470 MT by the end of the Tenth Plan.
The number of cargo vessels handled at major ports is about 16,000 per annum. The aggregate cargo handled at major ports during 2003-04 was nearly 345MT. The traffic handled by major ports pertain to liquid cargo (40%), followed by dry cargo (36%) and the remaining to general cargo. Container traffic handled at ports is fast increasing and around 3.90 million TEUs container were handled in 2003-04 in all ports. About 70 per cent of the cargo handled at these ports is for overseas trade, of which approximately 40 per cent constitute exports.
Private Sector Participation in Ports:
In order to improve efficiency, productivity and quality of services as well as to bring in competitiveness in port services, the port sector has been thrown open to private sector participation. This is in consonance with the general policy of liberalisation/globalisation of economy of the Government of India. It is expected that private sector participation would result in reducing the gestation period for setting up new facilities, also bringing the latest technology and improved management techniques.
Various areas of port functioning, such as leasing out existing assets of the port, construction/creation of additional assets, leasing of equipment for port handling and leasing of floating crafts from the private sector, pilotage and captive facilities for port based industries have been identified for participation/investment by the private sector.
Joint venture formations between major port and foreign port, between major port and minor port(s), without tender, as well as between major port and companies following tender route are permitted by the government. The measure is aimed at facilitating port trusts to attract new technology, introduce better managerial process, expedite implementation of schemes, foster strategic alliance with minor ports for creation of optimal port infrastructure and enhance confidence of private sector in funding ports.
During the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07), it is proposed to enhance capacity and improve productivity in major ports with focus on measures aimed at modernisation, rendering cost-effective services, enhancement of service quality, commercialisation and increased private sector participation.