India preparing policy to promote cruise tourism

India, which has a 7,500 km long coastline and nearly 200 ports, will soon come out with a National Cruise Shipping Policy to promote tourism.

The draft policy, prepared by a steering group headed by the Shipping and Tourism Ministers, is now being vetted by a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) and would soon go to the Union Cabinet for approval. The policy also seeks to encourage foreign direct investment in cruise shipping space, Shipping Minister T R Baalu said. Under the policy, the goverment is also expected to spell out measures to upgrade ports and related infrastructure. Government has already proposed having a relook at Section 21 of the Merchant Shipping Act in a bid to relax registration procedures for foreign cruise companies to make India a cruise tourism destination. The Shipping Ministry has even relaxed cabotage for cruise ships for five years from December 2003 to allow foreign flag cruise vessels to call on more than one Indian port so as to eable them carry out cruise shipping along the 7,500 km long coastline.

Though India has 12 major ports and 185 minor ports, global cruise industry has not been attracted toward India for cruise tourism due to lack of necessary infrastructure. In this context, government is contemplating developing seven ports as cruise shipping stations. These are - Kochi, New Mangalore, Marmugao, Mumbai, Kolkata, Andaman and Nicobar and Tuticorin.

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