The Hindu Business Line : Plan to outsource marine survey operations

Faced with severe shortage of marine surveyors, the Directorate General of Shipping (DG-S) is planning to hire the service of external surveyors for the statutory ship surveys.

Sources said the DG-S would be looking for competent personnel from the Indian Registrar of Shipping (IRS) and other classification societies to outsource some of its marine survey operations.

The move is expected to give the shipping industry a boost, depending on the cost of the outsourcing.

Although the domestic shipping fleet has grown significantly in the last few years, the number of marine surveyors with the DG-S has not risen in tandem.

In fact, at the time of Independence, when the Indian fleet was barely 0.5 million DWT (deadweight tonnage), there were some 50 surveyors.

Today, when the fleet strength has touched 14.04 million DWT, the number of surveyors has not crossed 100, a source said.

The surveyors handle about 50 different types of works, ranging from examination and institute inspection to Flag State inspection, statutory ship inspection and casualty inspection onboard vessels.

Need in ports

There are a few ports that do not have dedicated surveyors and officers are sent to these ports on deputation when the need arises.

The need for more surveyors is felt all the more, at present, in the light of the sharp increase in the number of ships.

The fleet increased from 686 ships in March 2005 to 739 in March 2006, an increase of 53 ships or 7.6 lakh DWT.

Since April 1, 2006, the fleet strength further increased to 756 vessels as on July 1, 2006, with further acquisition of bulk carriers, crude oil tankers and supply vessels.

Apart from the statutory surveys, ships of more than 20 years of age have to go through special inspections for determining their sea-worthiness, which means additional survey work. The average age of the Indian fleet is about 18 years, with over 40 per cent of the ships being above 20 years of age.

Govt help sought

Sources said the DG-S has written to the Government, seeking appointment of additional marine surveyors due to severe shortage. It has also projected its requirement of these officers for the Eleventh Plan period.

A fall-out of the shortage of surveyors has been the increasing number of detentions of Indian ships by various Port State Control authorities. The number of detentions, however, did come down a bit last fiscal. As per the INSA's annual report for 2005-06, India was still in the `Grey List' under the Paris MoU, while the Tokyo MoU continued to be a point of worry. "Regular ship surveys can bring down the number of detentions," a source said.

There was a proposal to open regional Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) offices in eight major maritime States to strengthen maritime administration, while a full-fledged Shipping Master's office has been suggested for all major ports.

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