In a welcome move for Indian shipping companies, international shipping regulators have revised the high risk area or HRA boundary in the Indian Ocean and have shifted it away from the India’s western coastline. The new boundaries will come into effect on December 1, 2015. Indian shipping regulators and defence forces have been lobbying to redraw the eastern limit of the HRA since 2012 citing the fall in sea piracy, which reportedly fell to a six-year low in 2014.
The existing HRA, which was put in place in 2010 due to the increased incidence of sea piracy near the Indian coast, covers most of India’s western coast. This revision of the HRA boundary back to its original state should thus greatly reduce the insurance costs of Indian shipping companies. In total, this could save the industry $25 million.
The extension of the eastern limit of the HRA from 65 degrees E to 78 degrees E led to security concerns on account of the presence of private security personnel onboard merchant vessels transiting the piracy HRA, and the presence of floating armouries off the Indian coast. The international body in charge of setting these boundaries, while welcoming the contraction of the HRA, stressed that sea piracy is not dead.
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