Govt. introduces rules to create and maintain central database of inland vessels

On 29-10-2024, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways notifies the Inland Vessels (Central Database and Allied Matters) Rules, 2024 to establish a comprehensive framework for regulation and management of inland vessels. The provisions came into force on 29-10-2024.

Key Points:

1. The Central database will contain the following data and details in electronic from:

   • application for conducting survey of vessel;

   • declaration to be issued by the surveyor;

   • record of equipment and vessel information;

   • application for provisional certificate of survey;

   • provisional certificate of survey;

   • survey certificate of category A, B and C vessel;

   • particulars to be furnished for survey of new vessel;

   • official logbook for an inland mechanically propelled vessel;

   • application for change of name of the vessel on certificate of survey;

   • Book of registration of vessels and application for registration, declaration of ownership, appointment of date and time of inspection of the inland vessel by the registering authority;

   • carving and marking note, application regarding registration, application for transfer of registry, instrument creating, transfer or discharge of mortgage, application for issuance of provisional certificate of registration;

   • certificates of competency issued to crew, medical certificate for appearing for certificate of competency, certificate of service, application form;

   • certificate of compliance for prevention and containment of pollution;

   • data and details of reception facilities.

2. Duties of nodal officer:

   • Monitor/ administer/ maintain central database;

   • Ensure that the information is duly recorded and available in the web portal;

   • Collect data and details from the designated authorities;

   • Report of performance and data received from designated authorities will be provided by the nodal officer to the competent authority;

   • Can appoint officers/ persons who are experts in the field of information technology/ data handling and protection/ software and hardware development;

   • Provide training to the officers appointed;

   • ensure the integrity, security, standards and quality of data;

   • ensure scalability and performance optimization;

   • make sufficient mechanisms for backup and recovery;

   • maintain documentation and metadata.

3. Nodal Officer will have to ensure that the following Standards and Procedures for maintaining central database are implemented:

   • managing the database properly;

   • identification of individuals or teams responsible for data quality, integrity, and security;

   • defining processes for data creation, storage, retrieval, and archiving or deletion;

   • defining roles such as admin, user, guest and specify access rights for each role;

   • implementation of secure login mechanisms and determine who can access what data;

   • ensure logging of all database activities for traceability and accountability;

   • defining retention policies for backup data to ensure compliance and optimize storage usage;

   • providing source of information or data that has been recorded, maintained and available for verification by authorities concerned;

   • providing user manual, restrictions, procedures and terms and conditions of accessibility to administration or third-party access;

   • providing privacy policies, liabilities and copy rights;

   • scheduling routine maintenance tasks such as database optimization, patch management, and software updates;

4. The designated authority will be responsible for providing the data and details to the nodal officer in electronic format at a regular interval not exceeding 30 days.