PIVOTAL ROLE OF COASTAL & INLAND WATERWAYS : CAPT RAKESH SINGH SPEAKS WITH SAILOR TODAY ON THE POTENTIAL OF THIS RESOURCE IN GROWTH OF INDIAN MARITIME TRADE.

Capt. Rakesh Singh, Managing Director, A-Sree Group of Companies, serves the industry as the Hon.Secretary and Head of Statutory/Technical and Labour committees of ICC Shipping Association. He is a member of various committees, Advisory Boards set by the Directorate General of Shipping, Ministry of POSW and Class. Is a Ship operator and manager with first-hand experience of operating a fleet of coastal and inland vessels. He is a Master Mariner with a Masters Degree in Political Science, LLB and LLM in Corporate & Commercial Law)

1. Kindly give us a background of Indian Coastal Conference Shipping Association

 ICC Shipping Association (ICCSA) is an offshoot of Indian Coastal Conference (ICC) which was set up in 1951 by 13 leading Indian shipping companies. ICC served as a platform to facilitate the growth of coastal shipping and to decide the freight to be charged for the movement of coastal cargo. Later, with the enactment of Competition Commission Act, ICC became defunct.

Hence, a new organization in the name of ICC Shipping Association was formed in 2010. Today, we have over 75 member companies representing domestic shipping interests.

As a representative body of coastal shipping, we routinely interact with the Ministry of PSW, other Ministries under Govt of India, Directorate General of Shipping, National Shipping Board, Port Authorities, Classification bodies etc. ICCSA has played very active and constructive role in drafting of various rules, regulations and guidelines affecting Indian coastal trade. Few major milestones are;

the RSV and ICV notification to promote coastal trade,

facilitation of inter-state trading of inland vessels within 5 nautical mile corridor in fair weather conditions, and entering into Collective bargaining agreements (CBAS) with national union of seafarers of India (NUSI) and maritime union on India (MUI) for ratings and officers engaged on vessels employed in coastal/domestic trade respectively.

I have been associated with ICCSA as an Honorary Secretary and the Head of Statutory, Technical and Labour Committees since 2015 and have been part of above initiatives.

2. What is the Status of Coastal Shipping?