Mumbai: The Shipping Corp. of India (SCI) has approached the Indian government to lobby for changes to the current ship acquisition procedures, reports Livemint. The state and public partnership company is asking for the process to be made more flexible so that its fleet expansion would be quicker and easier.
At present, SCI cannot negotiate deals with shipyards through brokers and is forced to float global tenders to buy vessels from yards that must have been in operation for a minimum of three years. This is time-consuming as there are numerous government approvals necessary for the purchases.
''We are approaching the Union shipping ministry with a proposal to relax the ship acquisition procedures by allowing us to consider new shipyards also. This will ensure more flexibility and better participation of shipyards in buying new ships,'' said Umesh C. Grover, director, technical and offshore, SCI.
The Mumbai-based firm plans to invest more than $3 billion over five years to replace vessels in its ageing fleet. [12/03/08]
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