Ministry of Shipping
Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari will inaugurate two floating restaurants under the ongoing water front development work of Mumbai Port in Mumbai tomorrow. He will participate in the Bhoomi Poojan ceremony of Mumbai Port Trust’s new Eastern Water Front. The Minister will also launch the Access Control & RFID System as well as development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Shri Gadkari will also begin the invitation of tenders for Mumbai-Elephanta Ropeway and a Super Specialty Hospital at the Port. The two Floating Restaurants have the capacity to accommodate 475 persons each. Licenses have been awarded for three floating restaurants – two at the sea off Gateway of India and one at the sea off Girgaum Chowpatty. These will be available for family functions, corporate or specialized events, public meets, etc. The restaurants have been registered with Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) for safety and security. Seaworthiness, life-saving appliances and firefighting equipment have been surveyed and tested. The restaurants carry 500 life-jackets and 24 liferafts and buoyant apparatus, and are equipped with 2 VHF, 1 Radar, ecosounder, GPS and AIS for monitoring ship movements.
The Mumbai-Elephanta Ropeway will be the world's longest ropeway over sea - approximately 8 kms - with the entire necessary infrastructure at both the terminal ends. It will be built at a height of 50 to 125 metres above the sea level on European standards with state of art features. Total travel time will be 16 minutes from one end to the other. Around 36 gondolas can be deployed on the ropeway at a time. The Project has been envisaged at a cost Rs.800 crores, and will be completed by August, 2022.
The 600-bedded Super Specialty Hospital will provide improved health facilities to 75000 port employees and dependents and 1.3 crore population in the catchment area by converting the present port hospital into Worldclass Super Specialty hospital on PPP basis. Cost of the project will be Rs 693 Crores.
Mumbai Port Trust’s new Eastern Water Front will have an iconic building as its seaside terminal, a domestic cruise terminal, a skating rink, Ro Pax, seaside restaurant and walkway, amphitheatre and marina. The Access Control System (Indoor & Outdoor) for visitors, employees and vehicles is designed and programmed to retrieve visitor information. Visitor and Vehicle Management System will be in place with online/ office visitor and vehicle registration. RFID enabled, multi-purpose cards
are configured to track visitors and vehicles, attendance recording, identity card, etc.
For development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), M/s Tech Mahindra have been engaged for adoption of information technology within port operations to reduce turnaround time. It is aimed at removing paper-based workflows currently in the system to increase efficiency, common reporting and monitoring to make cost and budget control easy, and unification of computerized operations from staggered mode to an integrated functioning.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation the Multi Modal Terminal on River Ganga at Varanasi
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation the newly constructed Multi Modal Terminal on River Ganga at Varanasi on Monday, the 12th of November, 2018. This is the first of the three Multi Modal Terminals and two Inter Modal Terminals being constructed on the river. The MMTs are being built as part of the Government’s Jal Marg Vikas project that aims to develop the stretch of River Ganga between Varanasi to Haldi for navigation of large vessels upto1500-2000 tonnes weight, by maintaining a drought of 2-3 metres in this stretch of the river and setting up other systems required for safe navigation. The objective is to promote inland waterways as a cheaper and more environment friendly means of transport, especially for cargo movement. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the project Implementing Agency
The Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) is being implemented on the Haldia-Varanasi stretch of National Waterway-1 (NW-1) with the technical assistance and investment support of the World Bank, at an estimated cost of Rs. 5,369.18 crores (USD 800 million, of which USD 375 is IBRD loan) on a 50:50 sharing basis between Government of India and the World Bank. The project entails construction of 3 multimodal terminals (Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia); 2 intermodal terminals; 5 Roll On – Roll Off (Ro-Ro) terminal pairs; new navigation lock at Farakka; assured depth dredging; integrated vessel repair & maintenance facility, Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), River Information System (RIS), river training & river conservancy works.
Salient features of Varanasi MultiModal Terminal (MMT) are as follows
First Multi-Modal Terminal on National Waterway -1. Land: 33.34 hectares.
Cost of Phase-I of MMT: Rs. 206.84 cr.
Terminal capacity: 1.26 MPTA Start date of the project: June, 2016
Completion date of the project: November 2018
The following are the main ingredients of the project, which are ready for operations:
Jetty: Length 200 m x Width 42 m with berthing and mooring facility.
02 Mobile Harbour Cranes Approach Road
Internal Road
Stone Pitching Works and bank protection
Shell structure of ancillary buildings, worker amenity building ready Operation, management and further development of the Multi Modal Terminal is proposed to be entrusted to an Operator on PPP model. Selection of the PPP Operator through an International Competitive Bidding is at advanced stage and expected to be completed by December 2018. The project of multi-modal terminal and proposed Freight Village at
Varanasi are expected to generate 500 direct employment and more than 2000 indirect employment opportunities.
Prime Minister will also receive India’s first container vessel that sailed from Kolkata on 30th October 2018, carrying cargo belonging to PEPSICO (India) from Kolkata to Varanasi. Container movement on an inland waterway in India is being done for the first time postindependence. The IWAI vessel, MV RABINDRANATH TAGORE is transporting 16 containers equivalent to 16 truckloads of food and snacks and is expected to reach Varanasi on 11th November 2018. It will make its return journey with fertilizers from IFFCO.
In a separate event the same day, Prime Minister will also inaugurate two National Highways projects – the Babatpur-Varanasi Airport road and Varanasi Ring Road. In addition to this, he will also inaugurate some sewerage projects in the city and lay foundation stone for a project under Namami Gange programme of National Mission for Clean Ganga.
Government has taken various policy decisions and initiatives to increase the share of Indian seafarers at global level: shri mansukh mandaviya
Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Chemical & Fertilizer has said that the number of seafarers in India has seen an unprecedented growth of 42.3% due to various policy level changes brought in by the Government in the last four years. From 108446 seafarers in 2013, India now has 154349 seafarers. India now provides 9.35% of the global seafarers and ranks 3rd in the list of the largest seafarer supplying nations in the world. At present, there are 17 lakhs seafarers globally including the 154349 Indian seafarers. The Maritime Agenda of 2010-2020 had set a target for increasing the global share of Indian seafarers from 6% to 9% and this target has been achieved in advance.
The Government has also lifted the ban on opening of new pre-sea and post-sea institutes and introduced new courses which will increase the number of maritime training institutes and Indian seafarers. The Directorate General (Shipping) is working to bring an exhaustive list of services under one digital portal to ensure transparency and efficiency in maritime the sector. The list of services which will be included in this portal are:
Online Examination & Assessment system.
Rating system of MTIs based on result and ship boarding data. Advance Banking system for payment of examination fee through BHIM, Bill Desk etc. Certificate through DGS’s website.
Old data of MTI’s to be captured in new module. Insurance agencies/ PNI clubs may be captured in ship’s data. Option for manual exam may be made.
Time limit to be fixed for placement by RPSL. Provision for notification to the concerned controlling authority may be made.
Also, internal departments of DGs, function of the various outside organization/ agencies viz a viz Maritime Training Institutes (MTIs), Multimodal Transport Operators (MTOs), Recruitment & Placement Agencies (RPSLs), Recognized Organization (RO) Mercantile Marine Department (MMD), Shipping Master Offices (SMOs), Seamen’s Provident Fund Organization (SPFO) and Seafarers’ Welfare Fund Society (SWFS) would be brought on the portal.