New Delhi: The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways on Thursday assured that all Indian seafarers and vessels operating in and around the West of the Strait
of Hormuz remain safe, with no maritime incident reported in the past 72 hours, as India continues to monitor regional shipping routes closely.
During a government press briefing, Opesh Kumar Sharma, a director in the shipping ministry, explained that the current situation in the waters to the west of the Strait of Hormuz is stable and presents no immediate danger to the safety of Indian maritime trade.
He highlighted that no incident has been reported in the past seventy-two hours and confirmed that the Directorate General of Shipping’s control room remains fully functional, maintaining constant communication with seafarers. He also clarified that reports of an attack on the LPG vessel Nanda Devi were inaccurate, stressing that no such incident had taken place.
Indian maritime safety systems remain fully active amid Gulf tensions
During the inter-ministerial briefing, Sharma explained that India’s maritime response mechanism remains fully active and in coordination with both global and domestic stakeholders. He noted that the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways continues to work closely with the Ministry of External Affairs, Indian missions abroad, and maritime stakeholders to ensure the welfare of seafarers and the uninterrupted functioning of maritime operations.
He added that the Directorate General of Shipping’s control room has been busy handling a large number of calls and emails from sailors and their families ever since it was set up. The Directorate General of Shipping’s control room has been actively managing large volumes of communication from seafarers and their families since its activation.
Shipping control room handles thousands of calls and emails to keep Indian sailors safe
Sharma said that more than 11,600 calls reached the Shipping Directorate’s control room once operations began, alongside over 25,800 email messages responded to. Sailors, relatives, and shipping professionals sent 934 emails during only the past few days calls numbered 444. While activity surged recently, communication volume stayed consistently high since launch.
Sharma talked about how India is helping its sailors. He said that thousands of Indian sailors have already been brought back safely from the dangerous parts of the Gulf region.
“The ministry, working through the Directorate General of Shipping, has helped bring home more than 3,474 Indian sailors so far. This includes 28 sailors who were brought back in the last three days from different places around the Gulf,” he said. For now, India’s coastal shipping lanes remain untouched by Middle Eastern tensions, he noted. Operations at every major port continues without disruption no backups no slowdowns mentioned so far, running as usual.
(Curated by: Faiza Nazar)
