The fifth edition of the Coastal Shipping and Inland Water Transportation Business Summit 2017 will be held in Kochi (Kerala)on September 22. at Hotel Crowne Plaza. Nutan Guha Biswas, Chairperson of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), Alok Srivastava, Special Secretary to Ministry of Shipping, Madhu S Nair, Chairman & Managing Director, Cochin Shipyard and Ravi M Parmar, Chairman, Kandla Port Trust will participate in the event. The summit will be an initiative to explore the immense potential of coastal shipping and waterways as well as an effort to build a shared commitment and decipher the role that each stakeholder will have to play in integrating the coastal and waterways transport infrastructure. Kerala Governor P Sathasivam will present the India Seatrade Award for Excellence in Coastal Shipping & Inland Water Transportation. Former Shipping Secretary K Mohandas, Chairman of the summit, said that a shift from land-based transportation of cargo to water-based movement can happen only with deliberate, well-coordinated efforts from the governments, the infrastructure providers, the trade, and the shipping industry. Together, they have to find the pragmatic path forward and this conference is expected to facilitate that.