Kochi’s aspirations of hosting India’s second maritime university remains on paper more than five years after the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture recommended the setting up of maritime universities at five centres in the country, including one in Kochi city.    

And, shipping industry insiders in Kochi have blamed the State government’s failure to exert enough pressure on the Union government after identifying sufficient land for the university in 2011 near Kochi and offering to bring Karnataka and Goa within the jurisdiction of the proposed university as a gesture reflecting its national character and regional unity of States in terms of higher education.    

The State Minister for Shipping and Ports K Babu, however, said that the Union Shipping Ministry had taken a stand that the teething troubles of India’s first maritime university, set up as per the recommendations of the parliamentary committee in Chennai in November 2008, had to be overcome before pressing ahead with other universities.    

A senior shipping industry official, now retired, alleged that there was a fear among established players in maritime training about losing students if a new university came up in Kochi. The Union government appears to be playing into their hands, he said, as he claimed that the vast majority of the students undergoing maritime training across India came from Kerala.