From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Aug 28: New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) chairman P Tamilvanan has stressed the need for Indian maritime industry to become internationally competitive by developing infrastructure and technology at all major ports.
              
He was delivering the inaugural address of the 24th national convention of Maritime Engineers and national seminar on “Emerging Trends and Technologies in the Maritime Industry” in Bangalore on Friday August 27.         

The NMPT chief underscored the importance of upgradation of technology and infrastructure to reduce dependency on manpower at ports.

However, he felt the industry has been facing shortage of quality manpower in the engineering and insurance fields.

There were only four to five qualified and competent legal experts available in the county to tackle problems related to maritime insurance, he said.

With the increase in the volume of trade, all ports have been facing shortage of ships and shipyards. There are 12 major ports in the country and they handled 560 million tones of cargo in 2009-10, the NMPT chairman said.

B K Saxena, principal of Tolani Maritime Instiute, Pune, delivered the T B Bose Memorial Lecture.