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Shreyas Shipping has introduced one more feeder vessel to Kochi as part of its West Coast services. The vessel — OEL Kochi — with a carrying capacity of 1,725 TEUs had its maiden call at ICTT Vallarpadam on Tuesday.
The service will have weekly calls with a proposed routing of ICTT-Tuticorin-Mundra-Hazira-Nava Sheva-ICTT.
S. Ramakrishnan, Chairman and Managing Director, Shreyas Shipping, said that the Vallarpadam Terminal offers an opportunity both for container feedering and domestic business in the region and the objective is to increase the throughput utilising its potential.
The company has also plans to connect all the Indian ports with ICTT for transhipment business as the tonnage growth in the west coast area is expected to facilitate the connectivity to ICTT.
Paul Antony, Chairman, Cochin Port Trust, stressed the need for Cabotage law relaxation for the benefit of Vallarpadam terminal as the present tonnage capacity available with Indian carriers is inadequate to meet the growing demand from Vallarpadam.
Later addressing media persons, Ramakrishnan said that Shreyas Shipping has taken steps to add its fleet strength from the present five to seven shortly. The company has earmarked an investment outlay of Rs 100 crore to procure two more vessels, which would be materialised in one year.
To a question on the proposed relaxation of Cabotage law, he pointed out that Indian ship owners are not against the relaxation of the law. But the Government should address the concern of the domestic shipping companies as there are several other issues to be sorted out before going ahead with this move.
According to Ramakrishnan, India shipping companies are only seeking a level playing field to compete with foreign ships. This includes waiver of duty on bunker calls, tax reduction for crew wages, and development of infrastructure facilities in various ports and terminals as well as security issues.
V.K. Singh, CEO, Shreyas Shipping, said that the tonnage available today did not justify the volume of transhipment and there is no need for additional tonnage by way of Cabotage relaxations.
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