Opportunities in Coastal Shipping: The coastal shipping offers vast potential for moving domestic cargo, particularly bulk commodities, Breakbulk and Containers.  Coastal shipping also presents significant opportunities for moving containerized cargo between domestic ports, which helps reduce pressure on road and rail infrastructure. Government of India desires to integrate Coastal Shipping with Inland Waterways to increase scope and reach of water transport. This, once successful, is likely to reduce congestion on existing Road and Railways. 

 

Integration with Inland Waterways: There is extensive efforts to integrate Coastal Shipping with Inland Waterways. It has been successful in states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. There was an unsuccessful effort to replicate this model on the East Coast as well for transportation of cargo on River Ganga (NW-1). National Waterways, if they could be integrated with coastal routes, offer a seamless logistics chain that connects deep hinterland regions with key coastal ports. There are projects evaluating cargo transportation using NW-1 to as deep as North India including Nepal. There exists possibility of achieving it only when the Rivers can be deepened to allow large riverine barges/vessels to ply. 

 

Challenges and the Path Ahead: While coastal shipping offers clear benefits, it faces challenges such as inadequate last-mile connectivity, infrastructure limitations at smaller ports, and regulatory hurdles. Government of India has directed Government owned Major Ports to construct a dedicated Jetty/Berth/Terminal outside custom bond area for handling Coastal Cargo. This one small step has eased logistics cost, time and paperwork. Similar infrastructure at Private Ports and State ports would further help coastal shipping. There is a need to initiate several reforms and investments in modernizing port infrastructure creating a more favorable landscape for coastal shipping operators and stakeholders.