Centre plans capital support for building inland waterways ships

VGF is a partial government capital grant for large and long-gestation public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects

- Subhash Narayan, Rituraj Baruah

The Union shipping ministry is working on a ₹5,000 crore package to encourage the construction of inland vessels and ships to develop a blue economy and achieve self-reliance, two people aware of the development said. As part of the plans, the government will provide viability-gap funding (VGF) for companies ready to build these vessels.

The plan, currently under discussion and formulation, would first focus on developing an ecosystem to build inland vessels to support cargo movement on national waterways, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. VGF may also be considered later for entities manufacturing sea-bound vessels, including cruise ships.

“The concept of VGF for inland vessels to support the Make in India initiative is under formulation and consideration. It will be rolled out soon so shipbuilding picks up momentum in the country," one of the two people cited earlier said.

Questions mailed to the spokespeople for the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways, and the finance ministry, which would have to approve the budget for VGF, remained unanswered till press time.