Union Cabinet approves the Inland Vessels Bill, 2021

The Union Cabinet recently gave the nod to the Inland Vessels Bill, 2021, which will replace the Inland Vessels Act, 1917.

“Total 4,000 km of inland waterways have been operationalised. The Bill will regulate safety, security and registration of inland vessels,” tweeted Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Key Highlights

• A key feature of the Bill is a unified law for the entire country, instead of separate rules framed by the States.
   
• The certificate of registration granted under the proposed law will be deemed to be valid in all States and Union Territories, and there will be no need to seek separate permissions from the States
• The Bill provides for a central database for recording the details of vessel, vessel registration, crew on an electronic portal. It requires all mechanically propelled vessels to be mandatorily registered.

• All non-mechanically propelled vessels will also have to be enrolled at district, taluk or panchayat or village level.

• The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also approved the proposal of ministry of earth sciences (MoES) on Deep Ocean Mission, with a view to explore deep ocean for resources and develop deep sea technologies for sustainable use of ocean resources.

• The estimated cost of the mission will be Rs. 4077 crore for a period of five years to be implemented in a phase-wise manner.

SOURCE: The Hindu

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