The Hindu Business Line : Shipping cos can soon recruit seafarers from more countries

Tackling scarcity
Currently, Indian ships can take officers from the UK, Malaysia, Iran and Italy.
The DG-S is expected to issue the notification within a couple of weeks.

Mumbai , Jan. 13

The Directorate-General of Shipping (DG-S) will be coming out with an expanded list of countries from which seafarers at the senior level can be recruited on board Indian-flag vessels.

This comes in the wake of the Government recently allowing Indian vessels to employ two officers of foreign nationality in a bid to overcome the shortage of experienced marine manpower.

Bilateral pacts

Currently, Indian ships can take officers from the UK, Malaysia, Iran and Italy, which have bilateral agreements with India.

"As these countries alone cannot meet our requirements, we have decided to expand the list to include five or six more countries, which can supply senior maritime officers meeting our standards," Ms Kiran Dhingra, Director General of Shipping, told presspersons.

The DG-S is expected to issue the notification for increasing the list of countries within a couple of weeks.

Maritime Training

The DG-S reiterated that there was no going back on its recent circular (Training Circular 15), which makes it mandatory for maritime training institutes to firm up tie-ups and MoUs with ship owners for sea-time berths for its candidates before their admission.

"After meeting the stakeholders, we have decided to make suitable changes regarding the procedures, once they (the institutes) come back with their feedback," Ms Dhingra said.

The circular was issued in the light of the fact that maritime institutes admitted students without ensuring them the compulsory sea-time (or on board) training, leaving many students to complete this vital component of the course on their own.

The existing institutes together produce about 5,300 students every year, with only a small part of this pool actually getting training on-board sea-going vessels.

The DG-S admitted that this initiative could result in the filtering out of those institutes that lacked quality infrastructure. "We have to move towards offering integrated course, in which sea-time training is an integral part," she pointed out.

Ms Bhindra said the DG-S had submitted a proposal to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to make it mandatory for all ocean-going vessels in the world to have 10 per cent of manning added as trainee crew.

"The IMO will be discussing this proposal at the end of this month," she said, adding that global demand for officers cannot be met because of global shortages of sea time training slots.

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Shipping cos can soon recruit seafarers from more countries