Following its formation, the International Institute of Marine Surveying – Indian Chapter, which remained dormant since its announcement more than a year back will now take on a more active role
Having been formed more than a year ago, the (IIMS) International Institute of Marine Surveying – Indian Chapter, finally got their act together and held their reunion this month in Mumbai at the Members Meet for the West Zone of IIMS.
The three recent incidents of ship grounding and salvaging on the Mumbai coast became the reason to focus on salvaging at the Meet.
Two presentations highlighting “Role of Marine Salvage consultant” and “Pre Salvage surveys” were made. Tony Fenandez meticulously illustrated in his simple and lucid style various roles that a marine salvage consultant has to execute in a professional manner during the most critical stages of the salvage operations. His lecture was followed by an equally interesting and an in-depth practical session conducted by the Secretary of IIMS Indian Chapter, Milind Tambe, on Pre-Salvage Surveys.
It had been some time that the opening of the IIMS-Indian Chapter was announced in October 2010 by the then President and C.E.O. of IIMS (U.K.) after the two days of lively conference that was attended by more than 150 delegates representing owners, classification societies, port state, workshop & repair agencies, training academies etc. and of course the Marine Surveyors from across the globe. The organizers of the Indian chapter now plan to hold a series of programs to meet the objectives of the Institute.
The objectives of IIMS are to promote professionalism and advancement of knowledge and at the same time seek representation for its industry on various government and non-governmental organizations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), coastguards, insurance companies and ship owners.
“We plans to achieve this by bringing all the marine surveyors and the existing marine surveying associations under one roof and provide a common platform to address various issues of standardized education syllabus for marine surveyors, and represent the entire marine surveying fraternity to the above mentioned bodies etc.” explained Milind Tambe, Secretary of IIMS - Indian Chapter, MIIMS.
He went on to explain that unlike other associations IIMS is a body of professional surveyors who share same values and standards, those who are striving not only to take this profession to newer heights but also to provide a better platform in terms of standardization of formal education, establishing the norms of better work ethics and to ensure uniform representation on various maritime authorities and bodies.
The consensus during the networking session, was the need to conduct similar Members Meetings more frequently and also to invite the representatives from various facets of Marine Industry viz, P & I club representatives & correspondents, marine insurance brokers, local H & M underwriters, classification societies, port & flag state authority representatives including top officials from the Ministry of Shipping etc.