The new framework will expand oversight across shipbuilding and repair, coastal shipping, inland waterways, port operations, manpower planning and approvals for investments.
The move is critical as India seeks to sharply expand its role in the global maritime economy—scaling up shipbuilding, boosting Indian-flagged vessels and attracting long-term private capital.
From shipping to maritime
The new framework will transform the role of the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) into a comprehensive, sector-wide regulator. The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) is expected to notify the powers, role and responsibilities of the DGMA before the new chief assumes office in March.
The office of the DGMA was proposed under the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025, which secured parliamentary approval during the monsoon session last year.
The Act formally expands the DGMA’s statutory authority, including the power to issue binding directions not only to shipowners and agents but also to ports, for discharging India’s obligations under international conventions.
Vision 2047 push
The shift from Director General of Shipping to Director General of Maritime Administration is part of a broader recasting of India’s maritime laws to deliver on Maritime India Vision 2030 and the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047.
India currently has less than a 1% share of the global shipbuilding market, ranking 22nd worldwide, with China, South Korea and Japan dominating the sector. The country also ranks 18th globally in ship ownership, with around 1,550 registered vessels and a carrying capacity of 13.5 million gross tonnage (GT).
Under Vision 2047, India aims to rank among the world’s top five ship-owning nations with 100 million GT by 2047. Shipbuilding capacity is targeted to rise to 4.5 million gross tonnage per annum (GTPA) by 2047, from about 0.1 million GTPA currently.
Alongside the DGMA, MoPSW will also notify the Merchant Shipping (Ships and Port Facility Security) Rules, 2026 by early March, establishing the Bureau of Port Security.
The bureau will be responsible for implementing and enforcing provisions related to ship and port facility security.
Recent parliamentary disclosures, including reports by the standing committee on transport and tourism, have highlighted the need for a stronger and more coherent regulator.
The government has acknowledged multiple incidents involving collisions between merchant ships and fishing boats off the Kerala coast, with investigations often ending in mutual settlements and limited systemic enforcement. These incidents have exposed gaps in reporting, inter-agency coordination and preventive regulation.
Industry view
“India’s fast-expanding maritime ecosystem needs a strong and independent regulator to ensure consistency, safety and investor confidence. A unified regulator can reduce regulatory overlaps, speed up decision-making and align Indian practices with global maritime standards,” said Gahan Singh, partner at Khaitan & Co.
“The regulator should be a standard-setting body, responsible for framing and maintaining up-to-date regulations. It should have the role of enforcement of the said standards and the requirement to issue licenses and certification. It should have incident oversight in case of any accidents and ensure fair investigations. At its core the regulator should be a facilitator of growth and business,” said Capt. Rajat Mehta, chief operating officer at Su-Nav Group.
Bhavik Vora, partner and transportation and logistics industry leader at Grant Thornton Bharat, said the move is timely, especially as capital deployment across ports, shipbuilding, logistics and inland waterways increases.
“With India’s maritime ecosystem handling nearly 95% of the nation’s trade by volume and around 70% by value, the sector is already central to India’s economic competitiveness,” Vora said.
He added that a centralized regulator would bring consistency in approvals, clearer compliance standards and faster decision-making—key for assets with long gestation periods such as ports and shipyards. Planned investments under Vision 2047 could rise towards ₹80 lakh crore.
“The shipping sector would benefit from a strong and functionally independent maritime regulator,” said Stella Joseph, partner, Economic Laws Practice.
“By formally positioning DGMA as the apex maritime administration under the 2025 Act—aligned with IMO and MLC—India is signaling that technical decisions on safety, manning, casualty response and environmental protection will be taken within a stable, predictable legal architecture.”
She added that the DGMA would function as a unified technical authority, digitise approvals and ensure green-shipping and security goals are embedded in daily regulation.