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The newly established Indian Maritime University (IMU) will introduce several new courses starting from this session (2009-10). Amongst the new courses it plans to introduce include the prestigious Maritime Law programme in collaboration with the International Marine Law Institute at Malta, the M.B.A. programme in International Transport and Logistics Managements in collaboration with the University of Antwerp, Belgium, the E.M.B.A. programme in Maritime Management for Mariners in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and the B.Tech. in Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T.R. Baalu here today at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry.

Speaking on the occasion, Thiru Baalu said that with inauguration of the Indian Maritime University (IMU) at Chennai on 31st December last year, the existing seven Government and Government-aided maritime training and research institutes, viz., Marine Engineering & Research Institute, Kolkata, Marine Engineering & Research Institute, Mumbai, Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced Maritime Studies and Research, Mumbai, T.S. Chanakya, Navi Mumbai, the National Maritime Academy, Chennai, the Indian Institute of Port Management, Kolkata, as well as the National Ship Design and Research Centre, Visakhapatnam, have been merged with the IMU.

The Minister said that with the emergence of the IMU, offering of long-term career to our seafarers will be possible by consolidating the present excellence in the maritime field, providing standardised education and training; creating platform for long term career opportunities and revamping course curriculum as per the need of the various stakeholders such as Shipping Companies, Ports, Ship Building, Dredging, Offshore, etc.

Thiru Baalu said that the University will also provide platform for integrated training, give credit to ship board training, make possible to learn and earn and get diplomas/degrees while working onboard ships, allow midstream joining for higher education and finally provide platform for research and innovation for full shipping industry for the benefit of all the stakeholders. He said that the Maritime University has to promote higher learning in Maritime studies and the frontier areas of Maritime Science and Technology so that India can remain in the forefront among the maritime nations.

Since it was the last meeting of the Consultative Committee before the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, the Minister thanked the Members of the Committee for their valuable suggestions on various issues relating to shipping and road sector. The valuable views and ideas given by the Members on these issues greatly facilitated in making significant headway in the shipping and road sectors he said. He said that the maritime and road transport and highway sectors have made remarkable progress during last four year.

Giving information to the Members about the progress in the road sector, Thiru Baalu said that the Government decided to enhance the scope of the original National Highways Development Project (NHDP) from two phases to seven phases which now entails massive unprecedented investments to the tune of Rs.2,35,690 crore. “Today, if we were to compute the progress in road sector in 1,685 days, i.e., from 1st June 2004 to 31st December 2008, we would find that under NHDP, we have completed a whopping 6,792 kms of National Highways at a rate of 4.03 kms per day. 194 contracts for construction of 9,013 kms of National Highways at an estimated cost of Rs.58,915 crore have been awarded during this period” Thiru Baalu added.

Besides development of road network, to upgrade and modernise the maritime infrastructure in India, the National Maritime Development Programme has been formulated comprising 387 projects in the Ports, Shipping and Inland Water Transport sectors at a cost of Rs.1,00,339 crore, the Minister informed the Member. 41 projects at a cost of Rs.5,651 crore have been completed while 166 projects at a cost of Rs.38,150 crore are at various stages of implementation.

The Minister said that there have been other notable achievements in the maritime sector during this period of over four years. The traffic in the Indian ports has increased from 465.64 million tonnes in 2003-04 to 716.38 million tonnes in 2007-08, i.e., by 53.9%. The 12 Major ports under the jurisdiction of the Central Government handled 519.16 million tonnes of cargo during 2007-08 against 344.80 in 2003-04 million tonnes, registering an increase of 50.6%. Thiru Baalu also informed that the various projects undertaken during the last four years at Major Ports have also contributed to augmenting the capacity in Major Ports from 389.50 million tonnes in 2003-04 to 532.67 million tonnes in 2007-08, thereby registering a growth of 36.7%.

Later the Members congratulated the Ministry for setting up the IMU and gave various suggestions to improve the functioning of the University. Some issues concerning road sector were also deliberated upon in the meeting.

The Members who attended the Meeting were S/Shri M. Rajamohan Reddy, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Harischandra D. Chavan, Subhash Maharia, Laxman Rao Patil, Hari Kewal Prasad, Lakshman Chandra Seth, Santosh Gangwar, Ms. Mabel Rebello and Ms. Sushila Tiriya

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(Release ID :47648)