COASTAL SHIPPING ACT 2025 BUILDS THE FOUNDATIONS OF INDIA'S MARITIME FUTURE

The Act serves as a catalyst for transforming India into a leading regional shipping and trading power. Its provisions streamline licensing, improve transparency, and promote domestic capacity-building.

- CAPTAIN VIKAS ANAND

India's maritime geography is both an opportunity and a responsibility.

With an extensive coastline of over 11,000 kilometres, nine coastal states, and four Union Territories, the country is naturally positioned to harness coastal shipping as an economic and strategic asset. Yet, for decades, India's shipping sector remained under-utilised compared to road, rail, and inland water transport.

The Coastal Shipping Act, 2025, which replaces Part XIV of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, marks a decisive policy shift. It provides a modern legal and regulatory framework designed to unlock India's maritime potential by simplifying processes, encouraging investment, and strengthening security oversight. The goal is clear and ambitious: to raise coastal cargo traffic to 230 million metric tonnes by 2030, a target that could transform the nation's logistics landscape and bring the coastline into the mainstream of economic growth.

A MODERN FRAMEWORK FOR MARITIME GROWTH

For the first time, coastal shipping has been recognised as the fifth official mode of transport in India-alongside road, rail, air, and inland waterways.

This classification emphasises the government's intent to integrate coastal shipping into the country's multimodal transport architecture and to reduce logistics costs through seamless coastal-inland connectivity.

The Act serves as a catalyst for transforming India into a leading regional shipping and trading power. Its provisions streamline licensing, improve transparency, and promote domestic capacity-building-key steps towards aligning India's coastal trade practices with global standards. Importantly, the law removes outdated bottlenecks, modernises oversight mechanisms, and enhances investor confidence by creating clarity around operational requirements, safety norms, and environmental compliance.