The high powered steering group on cruise shipping under the chairmanship of the Union minister of shipping and road transport & highways, T.R. Baalu and co-chairpersonship of the Union minister for tourism & culture Ambika Soni met last week for giving final shape to the cruise shipping policy.
The group discussed at length the draft of the cruise shipping policy formulated on the basis of recommendations given by the five working groups which were constituted to formulate various aspects of the policy concerning taxation, immigration, connectivity, identification of ports to be developed for cruise shipping and custom issues.
The draft policy has been forwarded to other ministries for inter-ministerial consultations after incorporation of inputs on river cruising from the Inland Waterways Authority of India, and on environmental concerns of the ministry of environment and forests. It was also decided that measures would be taken to explore the possibilities of promotion of cruise shipping in the eastern part of the country.