Reason: The country with a 7,500-km-long coastline doesn’t have a single international-standard marina. This means rich Indians who own yachts have no choice but to park them in Europe, Singapore and Dubai, rather than Mumbai or Goa.
The Modi government plans to change this state of affairs with a policy to promote “yacht tourism” and personal yachting.
The ministry of ports, shipping and waterways (MoPSW) proposes to build marinas at several locations along the eastern and western coastlines that would provide global quality infrastructure for sailing and parking yachts from across the world, union shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal said.
“We are adding a new dimension to our plan to promote cruise tourism. This includes developing the ecosystem for yachts with the development of marinas along the Indian coastline. This will be developed on the lines of facilities existing in several European countries,” Sonowal said in an interview.
A policy for yachts will be included in the Cruise India Mission that aims to promote cruise tourism by developing airport-like facilities at ports to attract international passengers. The Mission is expected to be launched later this month.
“The plan for marinas or small port-like facilities for yachts and smaller boats is also aimed at providing people who move to Dubai and Singapore to get this yachting experience. The programme is not only aimed at facilitating luxurious yachts but is also aimed at creating ample employment opportunity within the country with our estimates suggesting that each yacht would require at least 20 crew members.
“So, even if initially we have facilities like that in Croatia that has marinas supporting 15,000 yachts, enormous employment opportunities would be created,” Sonowal said.
Shipping secretary T.K. Ramachandran said these marinas would be developed along all harbours. The ministry will identify key locations for putting up the infrastructure on a public-private partnership model.
People aware of the development said marinas in places like Goa, Mumbai and other places frequented by business leisure travellers would also host customers and immigration facilities, while effort would also be made to rope in the private sector to commercially develop the area around marinas with hotels, shopping arcades and recreational and business and conference facilities.
“We hope that first set of marinas would come up soon. This should align with development of facilities for promoting cruise tourism,” Sonowal said.
To be sure, owning a yacht isn’t cheap – they can cost anything upward of $15,000 to $1.5 billion (the price of Eclipse, the world’s most expensive) – but the shipping ministry says yacht sales have been rising in India in recent years. Mostly, yachts are imported.
The Indian yacht market generated a revenue of $115.1 million in 2023 and is expected to reach $162.9 million by 2030, according to report by Grand View Research, an India and US-based market research and consulting company. However, this is tiny by global standards – just 1.2% of the global yacht market in 2023. China is the fastest growing market in Asia Pacific, projected to reach $810.0 million by 2030.
Super-rich Indians who own yachts include industrialists Mukesh Ambani, Laxmi Mittal, Gautam Singhania, Anil Ambani, and film star Salman Khan, industry reports said.
According to the report, Indian nationals own about 1% of all yachts that are 40 meters or longer.India’s superyacht industry is still in its early stages, with fewer than 300 boats registered in the country. This includes around 120 luxury yachts and over 150 speed boats.
In India, limited infrastructure is available for yachts to park at Mumbai, Goa, Kochi and Chennai. At several other places, yachts are parked at ports having temporary arrangements for yachts.
Some of the key global companies operating in the yacht market are Damen Shipyards Group, Azimut Benetti Group, and Ferretti S.p.A. The government wants some of these companies to set up shop in India and offer their yachts and yachting and services here.
Yachting has tremendous potential for growth in India where this becomes a status symbol for the upwardly mobile, said AnilDevli, CEO of Indian National Shipowners Association (INSA). “But in all this, the government should ensure that any policy on yachts should give a boost to domestic production of these at our shipyards. Also, the government should look at easing visa regulations to bring in technicians and non-engineering workers who are conversant to servicing these complex vessels,” Devli said.
It is expected that ministry would also discuss security-related issues with agencies including coast guard and Indian navy to facilitate uninterrupted movement of Yachts along Indian coast. A protocol would also be developed to facilitate this service.
“If you develop facilities as per global standards, then definitely you get all the stakeholders around,” Sonowal said.
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