Drastic shortage of maritime officers worldwide

There is grand op-portunity for Sri Lankans who are interested in entering the maritime field since they are lucrative jobs.

Due to tightening of implementation of Regulations specially by Gulf countries the whole world is facing an acute shortage of qualified officers and engineers. The estimated shortage currently is 15,000 which is expected to increase to 75,000 in a few years time.

Since there was no programme by ship owners to meet this demand, it will be impossible to meet this demand and ship owners will have to lay up the ships due to the shortage of Officers and Engineers to man their ships,” says Capt. E.S.M. Senanayake contributing to a report on Maritime Education in Sri Lanka. Senanayake suggests au- thorities should fill the gap by allowing Retired Regular Navy personnel to enter the system. But it seems they are adamant.

“The exnavy personnel can easily fill the positions in Middle East such as tug masters, small boat skippers as well as yachtsman and engineers,” he says in the report.

Unfortunately the Coxswain course and examinations can be held only by the Harbour Master. Private Maritime training institutions are kept out as the Director General of Merchant shipping is reluctant to take on the job of conducting Examinations.

Sri Lanka is surrounded by Sea and there is a vast opportunity for Sri Lankans to use this resource for the development of Sri Lanka.

Seafaring is a well paying profession which can be developed to create jobs for Sri Lankans if handled properly. All seafarers should be in possession of a Continuous Discharge Certificate (CDC) and presently the Director of Merchant Shipping has issued over 25000 Continuous Discharge Certificates to Sri Lankans who are qualified to be issued with Continuous Discharge Certificates and it is estimated about 15,000 of them are presently on active service.

The Merchant Maritime Education started in Sri Lanka when the Government opened up a Merchant Maritime Academy in Trincomalee Dock Yard in early ‘70s with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Navy.

When Sri Lankan Merchant Fleet was established the Ceylon Shipping Corporation employed Ex Regular Navy Personnel as sailors whilst foreigners were employed as senior officers as we did not have any qualified officers at that time, he said.

PAC Palwan makes maiden call at JCT

With the growth in volume through the Port of Colombo, PACC container line, a wholly subsidiary of Pacific Container Carriers Ltd; (PCL) expands service to cover Colombo.

The first vessel under this new services the PAC Palwan called at the Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) recently.

The line will initially operate a feeder service between Colombo, Calcutta and Haldia, on a fortnightly basis. From September onwards the service will be upgraded to a weekly frequency.

PCL is based in Singapore with its head office at Great World City. PCL is one of the largest ship owners and operators in Singapore, providing shipping services which include global dry bulk shipping, ship owning, ship management, regional feeder services, break bulk shipping and anchor handling tugs support services. It owns and operates 64 vessels.

PACC container line the fully owned subsidiary of PCL is also the feeder arm of Pacific Carriers operating feeder services to/from Singapore.

Currently PACC operates, daily services to/from Singapore/Pasir Gudang, Johor, weekly services to/from Singapore/Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya, weekly service to/from Singapore to Chittagong, weekly service to/from Singapore to Kolkata/Haldia. PACC fleet includes over 12 owned/chartered vessels.

PACC container line is represented in Sri Lanka by Aitken Spence Shipping Services Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Aitken Spence.

To mark the maiden call of PAC Palwan at JCT a plaque exchange was also held on board the vessel between the Additional Managing Director of SLPA Capt. Nihal Keppetipola and the Ship’s Captain. Expressing views at the occasions Capt. Nihal Keppetipola said that SLPA gladly welcomes and is ready to offer all possible facilities for the vessels that touch SLPA for operations.

Director (Operations) U. Bopitiya, Chief Manager (C/O) D. W. Atapattu, Operations Manager (Ship and Yard Planning) Jayanth Perera, Operations Manager (Marketing and BD) Upul Jayatissa and Director Aitken Spence Shipping Iqram Cuttilan also participated at the occasion.

Campaign against demolition of ‘Ram Sethu’ stepped up

Chennai. (PTI) Stepping up the campaign against demolition of ‘Ram Sethu’ (Adam’s bridge) under the Sethusamudram Shipping Project, the Rameswaram Ram Sethu Protection warned of a series of agitations if the Centre did not go in for an alternative alignment in Palk Straits.

“Some people may be atheists. But there are crores of people who believe in God. A democratic government should respect the sentiments of majority people,” Pejawar Mutt head Vishweshvara Tirtha, a patron of the movement, told reporters here.

Stressing that the existence of Ram Sethu was not a figment of imagination and there were references about it in ancient literature and epics, he said the bridge also stood as a symbol of unity and integrity of the country.

Pointing out that all Hindu religious leaders, including the Shankaracharyas, had unsuccessfully appealed to the Centre to stop the destruction of Ram Sethu, the swamiji said “the voice of religious minorities is respected in the country. But, the voice of majority Hindus goes unheeded.”

He said the Movement would strive to create social awareness on the issue, besides waging a legal battle to protect the Ram Sethu.

The Udupi Swami would lead a fast here on August 12 as part of a nation-wide agitation on Ram Sethu issue.

VHP International Working President S Vedantam said the fast would be followed by “Rameswaram Chalo” agitation on August 26. “If the Centre does not accede to our request, the struggle will be intensified to an unprecedented scale,” he warned.