The Hindu Business Line : Shipping Minister's visit to Mumbai

PRIVATE SECTOR shipowners looking forward to the Union Shipping Minister, Mr T. R. Baalu's forthcoming, and maiden, visit to Mumbai — home to 90 per cent of Indian shipping lines — later this month seem a disappointed lot.

As has been its tradition, the Indian National Shipowners Association had planned a welcome dinner, besides day-long sessions with various sections of the industry.

But not only did the Minister decline INSA's dinner invitation but he also directed the government-controlled Shipping Corporation of India to make arrangements for his meeting with shipowners.

Many of them are now not sure of being invited to the meeting or of getting a chance to interact with the Minister.

Unlike his predecessors, Mr Baalu does not appear to believe in formalities, though he will have formal meetings with shipping and port interests during his two-day visit to the city.

Besides, he will visit the Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru ports, and the offices of the Directorate-General of Shipping and the Shipping Corporation of India.

During these meetings, he is expected to discuss the draft policy for the maritime sector.

The discussion on the draft policy assumes significance as it envisages integrated development of ports, shipping and inland water transport.

The practice hitherto has been that the policy addresses the issues as they emerge. But officials in the Ministry, such as the Secretary, Mr D. T. Joseph, have now taken the trouble to look at issues holistically.

It is important to convert the draft policy into the national maritime policy at the earliest.

While political will is crucial in ensuring this, petty politics and bureaucratic wrangles, if not prevented, can destroy it.

For example, one of the proposals in the policy — setting up a separate Directorate-General for Ports — has attracted criticism from several port trust chairmen and even from Shipping Ministry officials.

This is not to say that the policy proposals should be accepted in toto without any change.

Healthy criticism leads to greater understanding of the subject and makes effective the process of policy-making.

Leaving aside their apprehension about the Minister's style of functioning, ship-owners have nothing much to crib about.

Overall, the shipping sector has been getting its due importance in the past two years.

What is heartening is that the new government has continued with the existing policy stance.

It has announced the tonnage tax, proposed by the previous government.

It has also cleared a couple of major but controversial projects, such as the third container terminal at JNPT and the Vallarpadam Transshipment terminal at Kochi.

Contrary to expectations, the new government did not scrap the former Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee's pet project, Sagar Mala, but only changed its name to National Maritime Development Project.

In any case, it is too early to judge the performance of the present government.

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