The ministry has no plans to divest stakes in Shipping Corporation (SCI), and dredging firm Dredging Corporation (DCI), shipping secretary K Mohandas said in Mumbai today.
"As of now, there is no immediate (divestment) proposal that we are working on. We will have to look at these corporations' own needs and the government's fiscal requirement. They (SCI and DCI) will manage on their own," Mohandas told reporters on the sidelines of the 47th National Maritime Day celebrations here.
Last July, the shipping ministry had announced plans to offload stake in many public sector units under its command, including SCI and DCI. The government holds over 80 per cent stake in SCI and 78.56 per cent in DCI.
"We feel this is the time for SCI to acquire more vessels and expand its fleet, because there is some advantage in the current market conditions for acquisition of vessels," Mohandas said. Also, since the country is weak in the area of dredging of ports, DCI needs to enhance its capacity by collaborating with international companies.
"Dredging capacity as of now is not adequate, so both DCI and the private dredging industry have to definitely grow more. We have to create more terminals to increase dredging capacity," he said, adding DCI plans to place orders for three new dredgers before the end of this fiscal.
"We would also like to build dredger-building capacity in the country. Cochin Shipyard has a proposal to tie up with one of the major dredger builders in the world. It is still being discussed," Mohandas said.
{{/usCountry}}"We would also like to build dredger-building capacity in the country. Cochin Shipyard has a proposal to tie up with one of the major dredger builders in the world. It is still being discussed," Mohandas said.
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