Promotion of coastal shipping is one of the major thrusts of the Ministry of Shipping. In order to promote transportation of automobiles through coastal shipping, Ministry of Shipping has decided that all Major Ports will provide discount of 80 per cent for two years on Vessel Related Charges (VRC) & Coastal Related Charges (CRC) for coastal transportation of vehicles through Ro-Ro Ships. This discount is also extended to other similar ships such as Ro-Pax, PCC, PCTC, PTC etc. An order in this regard has been issued on 20th September, 2016. In order to make this discount sustainable for the Shipping Service Providers, the Major Ports will also carry out intensive marketing for demand generation.
As per the earlier scheme, coastal vessels including Ro-Ro vessels used to get a discount of 40 per cent over that of the foreign going vessels. With increase in discount to 80 per cent, it is expected that the Shipping Service Providers will be able to attract more auto-mobile cargo through the coastal route and decongest the already congested roads and railways and also make the Ro-Ro ship service operations more sustainable.