NEW DELHI, March 18: All Indian seafarers in the Middle East region are safe, and no shipping incident involving Indian-flagged vessels has been reported in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said on Wednesday. At present, 22 Indian-flagged vessels with 611 Indian seafarers remain in the western Persian Gulf region, with the Directorate General of Shipping continuing close monitoring in coordination with ship owners, RPSL agencies and Indian Missions, a ministry statement said.
LPG carrier vessels Shivalik and Nanda Devi, which have returned from the Middle East, are currently discharging cargo as per the schedule of oil handling companies.
The DG Shipping control room continues to operate 24×7 and has handled 3,305 calls and 6,324 emails since activation, including 125 calls and 449 emails in the past 24 hours. The safe repatriation of more than 472 Indian seafarers so far, including 25 in the past 24 hours, from airports and regional locations, has been facilitated, according to the statement.
India’s maritime sector continues to operate smoothly with no congestion reported at ports, including confirmation from State Maritime Boards, the statement said.
Ports are closely monitoring vessel movements and cargo operations and have adequate spare capacity, with additional storage space created, including around 2,260 square metres at Visakhapatnam Port Authority. At the JNPA, the situation remains normal with the number of stranded containers reducing further from about 1,000 to around 770.
Centre offers additional 10 pc commercial LPG
The government on Wednesday announced that it has offered States and UTs an additional 10 per cent allocation of commercial LPG linked to reforms supporting transition from LPG to PNG.
It said that all the oil refineries in India are operating at high capacity with adequate crude inventories and domestic LPG production has been increased by about 40 per cent. (IANS)
