India Merchant Shipping Rules 2026: A Map for Ship Managers

The India merchant shipping rules are the set of rules made in 2026 under the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 (24 of 2025). The Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) lists more than forty rule sets on its website, notified between March and October 2026, covering entry into Indian waters, port state control, safety management, surveys and certificates, casualty response, cargoes, pollution prevention, seafarers and more. For a ship manager the difficulty is less the content of any one rule set than knowing which of them applies to a given ship, flag and question.

This guide to the India merchant shipping rules is a map. It organises the rule sets by the question a manager asks, and links to a summary of each one that has been read from the Gazette text. The other rule sets are listed by name only. Anyone relying on a rule should read it in the Gazette notification, where the English text follows the Hindi.

India Merchant Shipping Rules by the Question a Manager Asks

Question	Rule set and notification	What it covers	Summary
Can a foreign ship enter, or just transit, Indian coastal waters?	Regulation of Entry of Ships into Coastal Waters Rules, G.S.R. 815(E), 16 September 2026; DGMA Circular 69, 14 October 2026	Insurance source and validity, class by age, salvage and pollution response contracts, declaration through the agent; class and contract requirements deferred to 1 April 2027	India Coastal Waters Entry Rules 2026
What happens at a port state control inspection in India?	Port State Control and Flag State Implementation Rules, G.S.R. 672(E), 27 July 2026	Targeting, types of inspection, detention and release, banning after repeated detention	India Port State Control Rules 2026
What must an Indian-flag owner do after a detention abroad?	The same Rules, Chapter II	24-hour notice, seven-day report upload, re-inspection steps, flag State inspection at the next Indian port, appeals	Indian Flag Ship Detained Abroad
What must the SMS, DOC and SMC look like?	Safety Management Rules, G.S.R. 589(E), 7 July 2026	Audit intervals, designated person ashore, certificate validity and extension limits, cyber risk in the policy	India Safety Management Rules 2026
When does a certificate lapse, and what extension is possible?	Survey, Audit and Certification Rules, G.S.R. 823(E), 17 September 2026	Readiness duties, endorsement, overdue surveys, docking and tail shaft extensions for cargo vessels	India Survey Rules 2026
Who directs the response after a casualty, and who pays?	Marine Incident and Emergency Response Rules, G.S.R. 354(E), 12 May 2026	Nodal authority powers, takeover of a response, cost recovery from the owner	India Marine Incident Rules 2026
What must a dry bulk ship check before loading in India?	Carriage of Cargoes and Oil Fuels Rules, 2 September 2026	Cargo information, moisture limits, gas instruments, loading duties, grain	India Carriage of Cargoes Rules 2026
Can a foreign vessel trade on the Indian coast?	Coastal Shipping (Licencing of Foreign Flag Vessels) Rules, G.S.R. 884(E), 14 October 2026	Licence classes and categories, application timing, port clearance, appeals	India Foreign Flag Vessel Licensing Rules 2026

The Act Behind the Rules

Two provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act 2025 recur across the India merchant shipping rules. Section 3(12) defines coastal waters as the territorial waters together with the adjoining maritime zones within the meaning of the 1976 Act on territorial waters and maritime zones, and the entry rules use it to extend their reach beyond ports. Section 307 requires every vessel entering, sailing out of or operating within a port, terminal, anchorage, port facility, offshore facility or the territorial waters to comply with the prescribed requirements, including those on insurance and classification, and lets the principal officer detain or control a ship that does not. Several of the rule sets also fix a default penalty of up to fifty thousand rupees, with up to five thousand rupees for each day a continuing breach lasts, where the Act sets none, and several give the Administration a power to exempt, which has already been used once in DGMA Circular 69.

Other Rule Sets Notified Under the Act

The DGMA page also lists, among others, rules on load line, life-saving appliances, cargo vessel construction, passenger ship construction, fire appliances and survey, air pollution, anti-fouling, ballast water management (5 August 2026), prevention of oil pollution, control and discharge of noxious liquid substances, garbage, sewage and harmful substances in packaged form, carriage of dangerous goods, radiocommunication (20 May 2026), safety of navigation, prevention of collisions at sea (14 October 2026), maritime labour, seafarer accommodation, recruitment and placement of seafarers, medical examination and medical stores, registration (21 August 2026), tonnage measurement, sailing vessels, liability and compensation rules (civil liability, bunker oil pollution and limitation of liability for maritime claims), the use of liquefied gases as fuels, wreck and salvage, appeals against penalties (23 March 2026), the National Shipping Board, the Seafarers’ Welfare Board and the Bureau of Ports Security (14 October 2026). They have not been summarised here. How India now inspects ships for several of them is covered by the port state control rules above; for a comparison with other regimes see PSC Detentions 2025: Paris, Tokyo, USCG and AMSA Compared.

Sources

The rule sets and notification dates above are taken from the DGMA page and the Gazette notifications it links. The Act and each summarised rule set are linked from the individual articles.