The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in its written reply to Raja Sabha on 26th July 2022, has notified about the draft Guidelines for Operationalisation of Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax ferry service. The Ministry is promoting the Ro Ro/RoPax transportation. Such water-based transportation service is an effective measure to lower the logistics costs, reducing travel time, reduce traffic congestion on road/railways, reduce noise pollution and promotion of coastal shipping on several feasible routes.
The “Guidelines for Operationalization of Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax ferry service along the coast of India” seeks to homogenize and streamline the development and operations of ferry services, along with, promoting ease of doing business by eliminating unnecessary delays, disagreements and introducing digital interventions at customer interface.
The RO-RO/RO-Pax terminals would be developed and operated at major ports and non-major ports through private participation and the concession is to be awarded by the concessioning authority. The concession may be granted to the concessionaire for a period of 15 years commencing from the date of award of concession.
For operating RO-RO/RO-Pax ferry service, licensor need to identify the origin-destination pair with the approval of competent authority. License of the various O-D pairs to be awarded based on the competitive bidding process. The license period will be for a period of 10 years commencing from the date of award of license.
