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Sajeev Kumar V.

KOCHI, May 6

THE Union Government should encourage maritime training institutes in the country in a big way by providing soft loans for setting up or expanding existing facilities so that seafarers are benefited in their future training needs.

In a paper submitted at a recent seminar, Capt K. Sasindran, Principal, Univan Training Institute, Kochi, pointed out that industrial banks were reluctant to provide loans for development of marine training institutions because of no mortgagable assets and no re-sale value of facilities developed.

He said that the training institutes were ignored as there were no incentives and the entire financial burden was to be borne by the institutes

Since training was a continuous process, the Government should help arrange easily re-payable soft loans for aspiring young people wishing to take up the sea career but were unable to afford the cost of training. In view of the huge highly-educated population, India had the potential to man a large percentage of world shipping, he added.

Considering that Indian officers and ratings were held in high esteem worldwide and were a source of considerable foreign exchange for the country, the Government should promote maritime training by exercising effective monitoring role over institutions, which would be run privately.

Proper control and checks are needed ensure the highest quality of training and meeting the international maritime training standards. Bureaucracy in the approval of training courses, however, should be kept to the minimum and the requirement in excess of international conventions would not be prescribed, Capt Sasindran.

Before coming into force of STCW 95, not many companies invested in training of their personnel. Now, with most seafarers already having completed their mandatory courses coupled with diminishing attendance, training institutes found it hard to maintain their infrastructure, Capt Sasindran said.

He also stressed the need to promote Indian shipping and related activities with a view to helping India becoming a major shipping nation.

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