Inland Vessels Bill 2021: Government passes bill in Lok Sabha

31 Jul 2021 CW Team

On Thursday, Lok Sabha's Ministry for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, passed the Inland Vessels Bill 2021, replacing the Inland Vessels Act 1917.

According to the ministry, the bill seeks to incorporate unified law for India instead of separate rules of the states. The registration certificate of the bill will be valid all over India, and individual state permissions are not required.

The bill provides a central database to record the details of all the vessels and their crew on the electronic portal. It will ensure that the vessels follow the rules and signals, including response to distress signals, to ensure safer navigation.

The bill wants the vessels to have an insurance policy for death, injury, or damage, including accidental pollution.

The bill will promote safer and cheaper navigation, ensure the protection of crew and cargo, and bring uniformity in the laws of inland waterways and navigation, Sonowal tweets. It would support operations for registered ships, boats, vessels, containers, sailing vessels, and ferries across the country.

To operate the inland waterways, the vessels will need a survey certificate issued by the respective states.

Besides, it will boost trade, commerce, and economy of the country, and it will fulfil the vision of achieving the goal of PM Narendra Modi for a robust legal regime in infrastructure and governance.

Image Source

Also read: Major ports in India get tariff regulator

Also read: Govt inaugurates loading ops of Green Freight Corridor in Kerala

Real Estate

05 Dec 2025

RBI Rate Cut Boosts Confidence Across Housing Market

Industry Context and Market DynamicsThe real estate industry has welcomed the RBI’s rate cut as a timely boost to affordability and demand. With home prices having risen steadily across major markets, even a marginal reduction in interest rates meaningfully strengthens purchasing power, especially for first-time and mid-income buyers.Ashish Jerath, President – Sales & Marketing, Smartworld Developers, observes:“The RBI’s 25-basis-point cut, bringing the repo rate down to 5.25%, is a timely boost for the real estate sector. Lower interest rates reduce borrowing costs, enabling homeb..

BMC Resumes Rs 170 Billion Road Works, Targets 80 per cent By Jan 2026

Following the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon in October, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has restarted work on 645 roads—covering 297.49 kilometres—under its large-scale concretisation programme. Data shows that more than 60 per cent of the resumed works are located in the western suburbs. Officials said the civic body aims to complete concretisation on 80 per cent of the roads where fresh work has begun by January 2026. Launched in 2022, the Rs 170 billion project seeks to concretise 700 kilometres of roads across Mumbai. All civil works were halted during the monsoon ..

India Pushes Digital Shift In Urban Land Mapping

The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) under the Ministry of Rural Development has convened a National Symposium on NAKSHA – the National Geospatial Knowledge-based Land Survey of Urban Habitations – to advance India’s transition to modern, technology-driven land mapping. Speaking at the inaugural session, Secretary Manoj Joshi underscored the urgent need to move revenue departments away from outdated, tape-based methods and rough hand-drawn sketches. He stressed that adopting latitude–longitude-based digital mapping and GIS-linked registration systems is essential for economic stabi..