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REGD. No. D. L.-33004/99
The Gazette of India
CG-DL-E-14052026-272542
EXTRAORDINARY
PART II—Section 3—Sub-section (i)
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY
No. 327]
NEW DELHI, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2026/VAISAKHA 23, 1948
MINISTRY OF PORTS, SHIPPING AND WATERWAYS
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 13th May, 2026
G.S.R. 361(E).—Whereas the draft of the Coastal Shipping (Strategy and National Database) Rules 2026, was
published as required by sub-section (1) of section 39 of the Coastal Shipping Act, 2025, (20 of 2025) vide notification
of the Government of India in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, vide G.S.R. 910(E), dated the 19th
December, 2025, in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), dated the 19th December,
2025, inviting objections and suggestions from all persons likely to be affected thereby before the expiry of the period
of thirty days from the date on which copies of the said notification containing the draft rules were made available to
the public;
And whereas copies of the said notification were made available to the public on the 19th December, 2025;
And whereas, the objections and suggestions received have been considered by the Central Government;
Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and clauses (e), (f), (g), (h) and (q) of
sub-section (2) of section 39 read with section 6, clause (h) of sub-sections (2) and (4) of section 8 and sub-section (1)
of section 9 of the Coastal Shipping Act, 2025 (20 of 2025), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules,
namely:—
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
1. Short title and commencement. — (1) These rules may be called the Coastal Shipping (Strategic Plan and National
Database) Rules, 2026.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
2. Application. — (1) These rules shall apply to.—
(a) every vessel, engaged or intending to engage in coasting trade within the coastal waters of India in
accordance with section 3 of the Act;
(b) the licensee under the Act or in case of an Indian vessel, the owner or master or charterer or operator; and
(c) any relevant stakeholder involved in handling of a vessel engaged in coasting trade or plying of a vessel
in coastal waters, for the purpose of verification or exchange of information about any such vessel.
(2) Nothing in these rules shall apply to—
(a) any vessel of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, or any other vessel employed for defence, customs, or
sovereign purposes; and
(b) any vessel operating exclusively within inland waters of India.
3. Definitions. — (1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires, —
(a) "Act" means the Coastal Shipping Act, 2025 (20 of 2025);
(b) "Chairperson" means the Chairperson of the committee as specified under clause (a) of sub-section (3) of
section 8 of the Act;
(c) "port" means a port as defined under the Indian Ports Act, 2025 (24 of 2025);
(d) "portal" means the secure electronic platform hosted on a domain authorised by the Government of India for
the operation of the National Database of Coastal Shipping including all user interfaces, data entry modules,
and verification systems associated therewith;
(e) “route” means the designated path of a coastal voyage between specified ports or terminals, including
intermediate port calls;
(f) "Schedule" means Schedules annexed to these rules;
(g) "secretariat" means Secretariat of the committee as specified in rule 12 of these rules;
(h) "stakeholder" means any person, authority or entity that is required to provide, verify, use or exchange
information for the purposes of creation, maintenance or updating of the portal, and includes—
a. Major Port Authorities;
b. State Maritime Boards;
c. maritime security and enforcement agencies;
d. vessel owners, vessel operators and their authorised representatives;
e. seafarers, masters and crew members, to the extent relevant; and
f. any other person or body authorised by the Director-General for the purposes of section 9 of the Act.
(i) "voyage" means the passage between the port or place of departure of the vessel and her final port or place of
arrival, including the activities within the port; and
(j) "voyage report" means and includes a voyage commencement report and a voyage completion report submitted
through the portal as per rule 4, containing particulars of commencement of voyage of vessel, voyage
completion and other related operations of a vessel.
(2) Words and expressions used in these rules and not defined herein, but defined in the Act shall have the meanings
respectively assigned to them in the Act.
CHAPTER II
Reporting Requirements
4. Voyage reporting requirements. — (1) Every vessel, including an Indian vessel engaged in coasting trade shall, in
accordance with section 6 of the Act, submit information related to its voyage to the Director-General in the voyage
report through the portal.
(2) For the purposes of sub-rule (1), the licensee under the Act or in case of an Indian vessel, the owner or master or
charterer or operator, shall submit the following voyage reports, namely:—
(a) a voyage commencement report, as per Schedule I, not later than twenty-four hours prior to the scheduled
departure of the vessel from first port of call; and
(b) a voyage completion report, as per Schedule II, within twenty-four hours of arrival at the last port of call.
(3) Each voyage report submitted as specified in sub-rule (2) shall also include the following, namely:—
(a) particulars of any incident affecting the safety of navigation, the environment or the cargo during the
voyage, for which no information has been submitted under any provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act,
2025 (24 of 2025);
(b) details of compliance with any direction issued or information sought under section 35 of the Act in
relation to the voyage; and
(c) such other information as the Director-General may require under clause (d) of section 6 of the Act.
(4) Where any voyage report submitted under this rule is found to contain an error, omission or misstatement, the
licensee under the Act or in case of an Indian vessel, the owner or master or charterer or operator, shall rectify such
error, omission or misstatement, by submitting a revised voyage report:
Provided that such revised voyage report shall be submitted within one week from the date of, —
(a) providing an immediate intimation to the Director-General upon finding out about such error, omission or
misstatement by the licensee under the Act or the owner or master or charterer or operator of the Indian vessel; or
(b) receiving an intimation from the Director-General about such error, omission or misstatement being found out:
Provided further that submission of such a revised voyage report shall not be permitted after the expiry of thirty
days from the date of submission of the original voyage report, without the prior written approval of the Director-
General and for reasons to be recorded in writing therein.
5. Amendment of voyage commencement report on change of route.— Where, after submission of a voyage
commencement report, there occurs any change to the authorised route or intended voyage, whether necessitated by
weather, navigational safety, port closure, operational exigency or any other cause, the licensee under the Act or in case
of an Indian vessel, the owner or master or charterer or operator, shall forthwith submit the amended voyage
commencement report on the portal to reflect such incident or change of route.
CHAPTER III
NATIONAL COASTAL AND INLAND SHIPPING STRATEGIC PLAN
6. Preparation, publication and revision of the strategic plan. — (1) The Strategic Plan prepared under sub-section (1)
of section 8 of the Act shall be published on the official website of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and
the portal.
(2) The Strategic Plan shall be available for public access and stakeholder reference, and the Central Government may
invite comments or suggestions for its subsequent revision or review.
7. Scope and purpose of the Strategic Plan. — The Strategic Plan shall include the following information in addition to
the information specified under clauses (a) to (g) of sub-section (2) of section 8 of the Act, namely:
(a) details of bottlenecks affecting efficiency and competitiveness of coastal shipping operations;
(b) framework for integration of digital and single-window platforms for coastal and inland shipping;
(c) roadmap of long-term infrastructure development for coastal berths, availability of reception facilities,
terminals and multimodal connectivity; and
(d) any other information as may be determined by the committee.
8. Nomination and tenure of certain members of the committee.— (1) The members of the committee referred to in
clauses (f), (g) and such other person having expertise in the field of costal trade, mercantile and marine trade or maritime
sector under clause (h) of Sub-Section (3) of Section 8 as may deem necessary shall be nominated by the Central
Government for a term of two years.
(2) Any member nominated under sub-rule (1), shall also be eligible for re-nomination for one additional term.
(3) A member nominated under sub-rule (1), may resign from his membership by submitting his resignation in writing
under his hand, addressed to the Chairperson, and such resignation shall take effect from the date of its acceptance.
(4) Any member nominated under sub-rule (1), may be removed, if, in the opinion of the Central Government, such
member,
(a) has ceased to represent the category for which he was nominated; or
(b) has absented himself from three consecutive meetings of the committee without sufficient cause; or
(c) is unable to discharge his functions effectively or has otherwise acted in a manner prejudicial to the
objectives of the committee.
9. Vacancies. — (1) Any vacancy occurring in the membership of the committee by reason of death, resignation, removal
or otherwise shall be filled by nomination in the same manner as of the original appointment.
(2) A member nominated to fill a casual vacancy shall hold office for the remainder of the term of the member in whose
place such member is nominated.
10. Time and place of meetings. — (1) The committee shall meet at least twice in a calendar year, or at such intervals as
the Chairperson may deem necessary, at the office of the Directorate General of Shipping or at such other place, as may
be decided by the Chairperson;
(2) Meetings of the committee may be held in the physical, virtual or hybrid mode, as the Chairperson may decide,
having regard to administrative convenience and exigencies of time.
11. Quorum and procedure. — (1) The quorum for a meeting shall not be less than one-fourth of the total members which
shall include each of the following, namely:
(a) Chairman, Inland Waterways Authority of India;
(b) one representative from any State Maritime Board or any other body responsible for the administration of
ports other than major ports; and
(c) one representative of either shipowners or seafarers.
(2) The Chairperson shall preside at every meeting of the committee.
(3) In the absence of the Chairperson, a member nominated by him shall preside over the meeting.
(4) The nominated under sub-rule (3) to preside over a meeting, shall exercise all the powers and perform all the
functions of the Chairperson for that meeting.
(5) Decisions of the committee shall, as far as possible, be taken by consensus.
(6) All decisions at the meetings of the committee, will be made through the majority vote of the members present and
voting and in case the members cannot arrive at a majority on a matter, the Chairperson shall exercise a casting vote.
(7) The Secretariat shall prepare and circulate the minutes of each meeting within two days, which shall be approved by
the committee in the next meeting, and submitted to the Central Government thereafter.
(8) No proceedings of the committee shall be invalidated solely because of vacancies or any defects in nomination of
its members.
(9) All proceedings of the committee shall be confidential, unless decided otherwise by the committee.
12. Secretariat of the committee. - The Directorate General of Shipping shall act as the Secretariat to the committee and
shall provide all administrative, technical and logistical assistance necessary for its functioning.
13. Travelling allowance and sitting fee for nominated members. - The nominated members of the committee shall be
entitled to a travelling allowance and sitting fee as specified under Schedule III.
CHAPTER IV
PORTAL FOR THE NATIONAL DATABASE OF COASTAL SHIPPING
14. Name and purpose of the portal. — (1) The portal referred to in sub-section (1) section 9 of the Act shall be called
the National Database of Coastal Shipping Portal.
(2) The National Database of Coastal Shipping Portal shall serve as the central data repository for coastal shipping as
per the provisions of the Act.
15. Information to be published on the portal. — In addition to the information referred to in sub section (2) of section
9 of the Act, the following data shall also be made available on the said portal for public access, namely:
(a) quantity and type of cargo handled by the ports in reference to clause (a) of section 6 of the Act;
(b) voyage trip and vessel statistics such as number of voyages completed, active vessels and average turnaround
time;
(c) origin-destination pairs by commodity of cargo and type of flag of vessel.
16. Integration with other administrative systems. — (1) For the purpose of public accessibility, the said portal shall be
integrated and made interoperable with other relevant central digital platforms including, the Gati Shakti National
Master Plan, the portals of relevant research institutions and government systems, to ensure comprehensive data
availability and utilisation.
(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-rule (1), the portal shall be interoperable and integrated with,—
(a) the Sagarmala National Logistics Portal (Marine);
(b) the National Single Window System (NSWS);
(c) Management Information Systems (MIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems of Major Port
Authorities and State Maritime Boards; and
(d) such other systems as may be specified by the Central Government, for ensuring seamless data exchange and
coordination.
(3) In case the data required to be reported on the said portal is already being recorded by a stakeholder in any other
system or portal, the Director-General shall enable building in the necessary integration and synchronisation within the
portal for availability of such data on it and to ensure that no repetitive obligation of data entry is created under these
rules.
17. Data submission and update protocol. — (1) Licensees and stakeholders shall submit all required data through the
portal or any other interoperable portal as specified in sub-rule (1) or sub-rule (2) of rule 16, to be notified by the
Director-General, in such forms as shall be provisioned on the relevant portal.
(2) All data on the portal shall be updated,
(a) automatically upon submission of reports or licence related actions;
(b) once every month by the Director-General or other relevant stakeholders specified by the Director-General;
(c) immediately upon any modification or revocation of licence.
(3) The Director-General shall specify the frequency, format, and validation procedure for updating or verifying data
on the portal by the stakeholders.
(4) For all other data related to voyages, routes, and services, updates shall be made at least once a month.
18. Oversight and annual review. — The Director-General shall be the nodal authority responsible for the operation,
maintenance, and continuous improvement of the portal and shall, –
(a) ensure compliance with relevant and applicable data protection rules, regulations and guidelines issued by the
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology from time to time; and
(b) arrange for periodic security and performance audits of the portal through agencies authorised for such
purposes.
[F. No. SY-19014/182/2025-MG-Part(1) (C.N. 379476)]
MUKESH MANGAL, Addl. Secy.
Schedule I
VOYAGE COMMENCEMENT REPORT
[See rule 4(2)(a)]
1. Port, Route and Vessel Details
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+===============================+======================================================+
| Name of vessel | |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| IMO Number | |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Port or Place of Departure | --------- |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Date & Time of Scheduled | / / |
| Departure | |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| | Next port of call: |
| Intended Route | |
| | Intermediate ports or places: |
| | |
| | Offshore areas / anchorage / lighterage points: |
| | |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Final Port or Place of | |
| Destination | |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Estimated Date & Time of | / / |
| Arrival | |
+-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
2. Cargo / Passenger Information
Nature of Voyage: [ ] Carriage of goods [ ] Carriage of passengers [ ] Both
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+=======================================+=======================================+
| HSN code of Goods/ Services | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Description of goods or category of | |
| passengers | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Quantity of goods | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
Number of passengers
Port(s) or place(s) of Loading
Port(s) or place(s) of Unloading
3. Offshore Operations other than carriage of goods or passengers (if applicable)
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+=======================================+=======================================+
| Details of offshore operation or | |
| navigation | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Purpose & estimated duration | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
4. Declaration
I hereby declare that the voyage details furnished above are true, correct, and complete to the best of my knowledge and
belief and are submitted in accordance with rule 3 of the Coastal Shipping (Strategic Plan and National Database) Rules,
2026.
Submitted by: [ ] Master [] Licensee [] Operator [] Owner [] Charterer
Date & Time of Submission:
Schedule II
VOYAGE COMPLETION REPORT
[See rule 4(2)(b)]
1. Ports, Route and Vessel Details
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+=======================================+=======================================+
| Name of vessel | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| IMO Number | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Ports or Places of Departure, | |
| Intermediate Calls and Destination | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Date and Time of Arrival and | |
| Departure at Each Port or Place | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
2. Cargo / Passenger Details
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+=======================================+=======================================+
| Description, Quantity and Nature of | |
| Goods or Passengers Carried | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Loading and Unloading Ports | |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
3. Offshore Operations
Details of any offshore area, anchorage or lighterage point where the vessel operated or navigated:
4. Compliance with Directions
Details of compliance with any direction issued under section 35 of the Act:
5. Services performed by vessel.
Details:
6. Services Availed
Details of services availed by the vessel engaged in coastal trade:
7. Any Other Information
Declaration
I hereby declare that the voyage completion details furnished above are true, correct and complete to the best of my
knowledge and belief and are submitted in accordance with rule 3 of the Coastal Shipping (Strategic Plan and National
Database) Rules, 2026.
Submitted by: [ ] Master [] Licensee [] Operator [] Owner [] Charterer
Date and Time of Submission:
Schedule III
Travelling allowance and sitting fee for nominated Members
[See rule 13]
Nominated Members
A. Travelling allowance
(i) Retired government officials:
A retired Government official nominated as a Member shall be entitled to Travelling Allowance at the same rate as was
admissible to him at the time of retirement, as revised from time to time under the Ministry of Finance, Department of
Expenditure O.M. No. 19030/01/2017-E. IV dated 13th July, 2017;
(ii) Persons from various fields:
A nominated Member from any professional field shall be entitled to Travelling Allowance equivalent to that admissible
to officers in Pay Level 11 in the Pay Matrix, as prevalent from time to time; including reimbursement of travel, hotel
or guest-house accommodation, local conveyance, and food expenses, as per Department of Expenditure OM
F.No.19047/1/2016-E.IV dated 14.09.2017;
(iii) Eminent Personalities:
A nominated Member who is an eminent personality shall be entitled to Travelling Allowance equivalent to that
admissible to officers in Pay Level 14, in the in the Pay Matrix as prevalent from time to time; including reimbursement
of travel, hotel or guest-house accommodation, local conveyance, and food expenses, as per Department of Expenditure
OM F.No.19047/1/2016-E.IV dated 14.09.2017.
B. Sitting fee, local mileage and general conditions
Sitting Fee
All nominated Members shall be entitled to receive sitting fees, in accordance with the instructions, guidelines and
norms issued by the Government of India from time to time.
Local mileage
(a) A nominated Member who is a local resident of the place of a meeting shall not be entitled to TA/DA for out-station
travel.
(b) Such Member shall be entitled only to mileage allowance as follows:
(i) For retired government officials as per their entitlement at the time of retirement, revised from time to time.
(ii) For persons from various fields – reimbursement of non-AC taxi charges up to 338 per day for travel within
the city.
(iii) For eminent personalities – reimbursement of AC taxi charges as per actuals for travel within the city.
General Conditions
(a) These entitlements shall apply only to nominated Members coming from outside the place of meeting.
(b) Local nominated Members shall be entitled only to mileage allowance as provided in paragraph B.
(c) Any proposal seeking deviation from these entitlements shall be referred to the Ministry of Finance with full
justification.
(d) These rates shall be subject to revision by the Ministry of Finance from time to time.
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