DG Shipping (India) has issued notice as per the direction from Naval Control of Shipping Office headquarters, Western Naval Command, Mumbai regarding the Naval publications on board merchant vessels.
As per the guidelines issued by Naval Headquarters, New Delhi, all merchant ships employed in foreign trade and ships above 500 GRT employed on coastal trade are required to be in possession of category-‘X’ allowances of naval publications. Merchant ships that are less than 500 GRT employed on coastal trade are required to be in possession of category-‘M’ allowances of naval publications so that encrypted messages and positions sent to them can be decrypted at sea by them for action in case of any emergent scenario.
It is observed that many Indian flag vessels are not in possession of naval publications, also some vessels are holding superseded naval publications which can result in compromised naval crypto security.
In view of above, Designated Person Ashore (DPA) of all the Indian flagged vessels are requested to return the superseded naval publications and collect new naval publications from the nearest NCSO/PCBO/ZNA/ITR at the earliest.