The Hindu Business Line : Security certificates awarded to ports, ships

INDIAN port and shipping sectors achieved a distinction on Tuesday when the first batch of the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) certificates were awarded to the New Mangalore port, Reliance's Jamnagar port facility, two ships of Essar Shipping and one of Great Eastern Shipping. The certificates were handed over by the Union Minister of Shipping, Mr Shatrughan Sinha, to representatives of the respective organisations.

According to Mr Sinha, India has become one of the first few countries where implementation of the ISPS code has already commenced on ships and ports.

Given the present rate of implementation of the new code, the Indian ports and shipping companies are likely to get compliance certificates well before the July 2004 deadline, which has been mandated by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a specialised agency of the United Nations. While the Indian ports are likely to get the ISPS certificates by April this year, the shipping companies will get the certificates for all their ships by May.

The Directorate-General of Shipping, which has been selected as the designated authority for implementation of the security code, has identified about 200 Indian foreign-going vessels, 12 major ports, 36 minor ports and 10 ship repair yards in the country that would have to comply with the ISPS code.

The IMO had formulated the security code in light of the increasing threat to ocean-going vessels in the form of mutiny, pilferage and thefts, illegal migrants and stowaways, piracy and armed robbery against ships, illicit drugs smuggling and terrorism.

The new ISPS code will be applicable to all passenger ships, high-speed pax crafts, cargo ships on international voyages and port facilities serving such ships. For implementation of the code, shipping companies will have to identify and train Company Security Officers (CSOs), assess security requirement of ships, fit additional security equipment, prepare security plan for each ship and obtain plan approval from the respective governments. As for the ships, the Ship Security Assessment (SSA) and Ship Security Programme (SSP) will have to be prepared and implemented, besides arranging for verification audit of the Ship Security Certificate (SSC).

As per the guidelines, the ports will have to assess threat and vulnerability of the facilities, obtain approval of assessment, prepare security plan and obtain statement of compliance.

The cost of implementation of the security code varies from port to port; for example, in the case of JNPT, the cost is estimated to be about Rs 15 crore, while for the other ports it will be lesser because of their size. For ships also, the implementation cost will depend on the risk a ship carried (for example, it is higher in the case of a LNG carrier) and the route that the vessel is plying. "Roughly, a ship would have to invest an average of $20,000 to implement the code," according to an official.

As per the cost worked out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the initial cost to implement the code on about 40,000 ships plying different on different routes has been worked out to be $1,279 million, apart from a recurring expenditure of $730 per year.