Hope for growing short sea shipping in India
The departure of "Hope Seven" recently inaugurated a new maritime route between Chennai Port and Pondicherry Port.
This container ship is the brainchild of Jude Vallabadas, CEO (Projects) of the Indian company Global Logistics Solutions: Goods transports will be quicker and reduce costs and pollution on the roads. Indeed, the journey will take twelve hours by sea instead of two to three days by road and, according to Jude Vallabadas, 30% of the costs will be saved.
With a cargo capacity of 106 teu, "Hope Seven" is part of the Indian government’s Sagarmala programme, which focuses on encouraging coastal shipping for economic growth in the Union Territory of Puducherry. For the Global Logistics directors, Jiss Mathew, Naveen Prakash and Asif Mujawar, the container ship’s service "is expected to greatly benefit" the industrial clusters of the region. (lh)