The Director-General of shipping (DGS) is drafting a traffic separation scheme (TSS) off the south-west coast in a bid to tackle collision incidents between merchant ships and fishing vessels.

“The TSS lanes which are currently under consideration is located at a distance of about 90 nautical miles west of Mangalore, with the lanes leading in a south-westerly direction to the southern-most tip and ending about 40 nautical miles off south of Kanyakumari. The average distance from the coast is about 50 nautical miles,” Anish Joseph, Nautical Surveyor-cum-Deputy Director General of Shipping (Tech & Piracy), Directorate General of Shipping, told BusinessLine .

The proposal is in the consultation stage and has been drawn taking into consideration past collisions off the Indian coast, traffic patterns of merchant vessels for past years, and optimum sea routes in consonance with the current traffic flow, including simplification of traffic in converging areas off the coast of Kerala.

The proposal has also considered aspects pertaining to safety of navigation, maritime security and the separation of opposing streams of traffic to reduce incidents of collision in Indian waters, Joseph said.

Once the TSS on the south-west coast of India is promulgated, it is expected that the density of merchant traffic will shift away from the coast and merchant ship traffic will become more concentrated in the established TSS.

“This is expected to result in more sea room for fishing vessels to operate safely and will, therefore, be beneficial to the fishing industry,” Joseph added.

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