Principal Officer, MMD Chennai, visits Tuticorin: interaction with the Coastal Mechanised Sailing Vessel Owners Association and Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam plantation drive (17 August 2026)

1. Capt. Anish Joseph, Principal Officer, Mercantile Marine Department, Chennai, visited Tuticorin on 17 August 2026 at the invitation of the Coastal Mechanised Sailing Vessel Owners Association (CMSVOA), Tuticorin. He was accompanied by Shri S. Satyanarayana Murthy, Surveyor in Charge, MMD Tuticorin. 
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3. The visit began at the CMSVOA boat building yard, where the Principal Officer inspected a wooden mechanised sailing vessel under construction. He examined the hull framing and planking on the building stocks, went aboard to see the wheelhouse and accommodation fit out, and interacted with the yard supervisors and the traditional shipwrights engaged in the work. The yard continues to build sailing vessels using time honoured methods of wooden hull construction, a craft for which the Tuticorin coast has long been known, and the Principal Officer took note of the skills preserved at the yard as well as the survey and certification issues arising from vessels of this type.
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5. As part of the national Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam campaign, the Principal Officer and the Surveyor in Charge, MMD Tuticorin, planted saplings within the boat yard premises together with members of the Association. The plantation drive was organised by CMSVOA, which has undertaken to nurture the saplings as a standing contribution of the sailing vessel community to the campaign.
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7. The Principal Officer thereafter met the members of the Association at a meeting hosted by CMSVOA.  The members welcomed the Principal Officer and the Surveyor in Charge and placed before them the concerns of the sailing vessel owners. The members raised matters relating to survey and certification of mechanised sailing vessels, manning and crew documentation, port formalities on the coastal trade, and the future of the sailing vessel sector under the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025, which came into force on 15 March 2026.
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9. Addressing the gathering, the Principal Officer acknowledged the contribution of the mechanised sailing vessel fleet to coastal cargo movement and to the livelihoods of the coastal communities of Tamil Nadu. He briefed the members on the framework of the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 as it applies to sailing vessels and assured them that MMD Chennai and MMD Tuticorin would engage with the Association on a continuing basis so that compliance requirements are understood and met without unnecessary difficulty to owners. He invited the Association to submit its representations in writing for examination and appropriate action.
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11. The Association felicitated the Principal Officer and the Surveyor in Charge at the close of the meeting and thanked MMD for its outreach to the sailing vessel sector.