Focus: GS-III Industry and Infrastructure
Why in news?
Ministry of Shipping has issued the draft of Aids to Navigation Bill, 2020 for suggestions from the stakeholders and general public.
Aids to Navigation Bill 2020
- The draft bill Aids to Navigation Bill, 2020, is proposed to replace the almost nine decades old Lighthouse Act, 1927, to incorporate the global best practices, technological developments and India’s International obligations in the field of Aids to Marine Navigation.
- The bill aims to regulate state-of-the-art technologies of marine navigation which was earlier used to tangle in statutory provisions of Lighthouse Act, 1927.
- The draft bill provides for empowering Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) with additional power and functions such as Vessel Traffic Service, Wreck flagging etc.
- The DGLL also takes up the function of implementation of other obligations under International Conventions, where India is a signatory.
- It also provides for identification and development of heritage lighthouses.
- The draft bill comprises a new schedule of offences, along with commensurate penalties for obstructing and damaging the aids to navigation, and non-compliance with directives issued.
- Therefore, the new law encompasses a major shift from lighthouses to modern aids of navigation.
