Maritime body sounds alarm on DG order on retiring 20-year-old ships, calls for urgent policy reforms

The Hindu

24-06-2025

Over 700 Indian-flagged vessels, mostly operating in coastal and near-shore routes, are expected to be retired prematurely due to age-based restrictions being imposed by DG Shipping, said officials of International Maritime Federation (IMF).
The move would render over 20,000 seafarers jobless and impact the livelihood of more than one lakh people, they said.
Shipping industry leaders, seafarer advocates, shipowners, policy experts, and technology officers under the banner of IMF on Tuesday called for urgent policy reforms for the survival of the sector.
They were objecting DG Shipping's Order 6/2023 on vessel-age norms and the penalty mechanisms imposed on Recruitment and Placement Services Licence (RPSL) companies.
According to IMF officials, as per the DG Shipping Order, 20-year-old ships will be scrapped.
'The blanket ban on age of the ship and disproportionate RPSL penalties are not just operational hurdles, they are existential threats to India's maritime ecosystem' said Capt. Nalin Pandey, CMD-Pentagon Marine.
IMF officials said a comprehensive global dataset of over 1,30,000 commercial vessels and 3,70,000 inspections found that older vessels, especially those that have operated safely for over 25 years, often demonstrate better safety records than newer ships.
'This is attributed to rigorous maintenance practices and survivorship bias, older ships that are still operational tend to be inherently more robust and better maintained,' they added.
Capt. Ramji S. Krishnan, a Sloan Fellow from London Business School, said 'The world does not sail by age, it sails by condition. If our classification societies and safety inspections say a ship is fit, then who are we to call it unfit just because it is old?'
Officials said if age norms threaten the vessels, DG Shipping's RPSL penalty framework threatens the recruiters who connect Indian seafarers to ships.
Capt. Raj Sinha, Chairman, Marine Solutions also Ex Chairman (IMF) said instead of a consultative mechanism, RPSL companies are penalised, blocked on portals, and fined heavily, often without the opportunity for appeal.
IMF officials said the phasing out of over 700 older vessels would create a capacity vacuum that cannot be filled quickly or cheaply and foreign flagged vessels will fill the gap.
The IMF has called for replacement of age norms with safety and maintenance-based standards, withdrawal of revision of Order 6/2023, pending transparent consultation, introduction of a 3-strike graded penalty system for RPSL firms and creation of a centralized grievance redressal and appeals mechanism among others.