Under Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030, various steps have been taken to develop world-class ports and maritime infrastructure through capacity enhancement, technology adoption, development of new berths, mechanized cargo handling, adoption of advanced digital technologies, improvement of multimodal connectivity, sustainable port operations, and enhanced private sector participation through Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Details of achievements vis-à-vis targets for the year 2030 are available at Table I.

Table I

Details of achievements viz. a viz. target for year 2030:

Cruise tourism: Major initiatives undertaken by the Government to promote cruise tourism include:

1. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)-3 for Cruise Vessels at Indian Ports was issued by the Ministry of Tourism on 19.06.2025;
2. International Cruise Terminals at Visakhapatnam (September 2023), Mumbai (September 2025) and Chennai (June 2026) have been upgraded and operationalized;
3. The East Coast Cruise Circuit has been expanded with addition of Puducherry;
4. Destination Task Forces have been constituted at all nine (09) cruise destinations and at Gujarat Maritime Board to facilitate coordination among stakeholders;
5. QR-based Immigration Clearance System has been introduced, with Enroute Immigration Clearance options for Cruise Ships, reducing immigration clearance time to about 30 seconds per passenger;
6. Merchant Overtime (MOT) charges for Customs clearance of cruise passengers and baggage have been exempted vide CBIC Circular dated 15.06.2026, to facilitate faster and seamless clearance of cruise passengers;
7. Digitized customs procedures and self-declaration mechanism for cruise ships have been introduced to facilitate faster Customs clearance;
8. e-Group Visit Visa has been introduced to facilitate entry of foreign tourist groups arriving by cruise vessels;
9. Cruise ships are provided with guaranteed berthing, ousting charges have been removed and concessional uniform tariff is provided; and
10. Cabotage has been waived for foreign cruise vessels.

Shipbuilding: The Government has adopted a 4-pillar strategy to revitalise the Shipbuilding sector. The Government has approved a comprehensive Rs.69,725 crore package to strengthen domestic capacity, maritime financing, shipyard development, skilling, and reforms. The key components include

1. Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme (SBFAS) with ? 24,736 crore outlay to enhance scope and address cost disadvantages faced by Indian shipyards against foreign shipyards;
2. Maritime Development Fund (MDF) of ? 25,000 crore comprising a ? 20,000 crore Maritime Investment Fund and ? 5,000 crore Interest Incentivization Fund to strengthen long-term financing in the sector;
3. Shipbuilding Development Scheme (SbDS) with ?19,989 crore outlay to expand capacity to 4.5 million Gross Tonnage annually while supporting greenfield shipbuilding clusters; and
4. Initiated policy reforms including implementation of classification of large vessels as infrastructure and demand aggregation. The Government on 19th September 2025, notified infrastructure status to Indian-flagged commercial vessels with a Gross Tonnage (GT) of 10,000 or above. For vessels constructed in India infrastructure status was accorded to vessels of size 1,500 GT or above. As part of demand aggregation, a fleet acquisition plan of 400+ vessels has been prepared which provides long term order visibility to the Indian shipyards.

Ship recycling: To strengthen the ship recycling ecosystem, following steps have been taken:

1. The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has released financial assistance of ? 53.5 crore under the Ferrous Scrap Development Fund (FSDF) to 109 Indian ship recycling yards to support yards modernization. Assistance of ? 2.49 crore per annum is released from FSDF for development and operation of a multispecialty hospital at Alang, Gujarat. In addition, ? 12 lakh per annum under the FSDF is also released for maintenance and operation of another primary hospital at Alang, Gujarat. These measures have helped the yards to become Hong Kong Convention (HKC) compliant and at present 115 operational ship recycling yards at Alang are HKC compliant. The HKC compliance allows India to target a larger global market share by positioning Indian ship recycling yards as safe, certified, and environmentally responsible destinations for global shipping fleets.
2. To enhance competitiveness, the Government of India has launched Shipbreaking Credit Note Scheme, under which ship owners receive a credit note equivalent to 40% of scrap value of recycled ship when the recycling is done at a HKC compliant Indian ship recycling yard. The credit note can be utilized towards payment of up to 5% of the value of a new ship built at an Indian shipyard, thus promoting both domestic ship recycling and shipbuilding.
    

Coastal shipping: For promotion of coastal shipping, a Coastal Cargo Promotion Scheme to increase the share of Inland Waterways and Coastal Shipping from 6% to 12% by 2047 has been announced in Union Budget 2026-27.

MoPSW has introduced digital and regulatory reforms to improve efficiency, transparency, and ease of doing business in the maritime sector. Initiatives such as Maritime Single Window, One Nation One Port Process, MAITRI, e-Samudra, e-Pariksha, and Jal Samriddhi Portal have streamlined documentation, trade processes, regulatory services and inland waterway development.

As regards the skill development, the Government has initiated various steps for promoting skill development in the ports, shipping, and waterways sector by strengthening maritime education and training, upgrading the curriculum of maritime institutes, and enhancing industry-oriented skill programmes. These efforts aim to create a globally competitive, skilled workforce to support India's maritime growth. The details of various steps taken are as under:

1. 11 shipyards have signed MoUs with 34 ITIs across 8 coastal States towards implementation of OJTs. As part of this, a 150-hour OJT (On Job Training) model has been introduced. 727 trainees have already been trained till date in these yards.
2. Training of Trainers (ToT) program has been implemented at 2 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in West Bengal by Centre of Excellence in Maritime and Shipbuilding (CEMS).
3. A preliminary Skill Gap Study has been completed across 9 shipyards.
4. Indian Ship Technology Centre (ISTC) has been established as a Section 8 company to facilitate skilling.
5. A total of 92,697 candidates have been trained/skilled/upskilled during the last 3 years.
6. A Plan of Implementation (PoI) has been signed between MoPSW and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) for a skill development project in the shipbuilding sector.

Through various ports, shipping, and waterways development initiatives, India's competitiveness in global maritime trade has been significantly enhanced. According to the Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) 2025 of the World Bank, 03 Indian ports i.e. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), Mundra, and Pipavav are ranked among the top 30 container ports globally. In addition, India ranks first in the world in ship recycling, reflecting its growing strength and global leadership in the maritime sector. The key performance indicators of the port sector have shown substantial improvement over the last 10 years. The details are available at Table II.

Table II

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of Ports in India:

This information was given by the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Source: PIB

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