It was amidst a world of excitement, enthusiasm and fanfare, that the state-of-the art pre-sea campus of Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies (SIMS) was officially inaugurated on 1st November 2007 at Lonavala. Distinguished guests from the shipping fraternity and various other dignitaries flew in from all over the world to take part in this momentous event and to say the least, each one of them left awe inspired and absolutely impressed with the magnificent, one of its kind maritime campus.

The entire campus, with manicured green lawn, spruced with greenery and blooming flowers took a festive look with bouquets decorating the building facades and various corners. The weather god played a prominent role by offering a beautiful bright morning with a comfortable ambience.

The guests arrived at around 0900 hrs, most of the foreign guests drove down two hours from Mumbai and were greeted with a grand traditional Indian welcome by shehnai players in their colourful costumes and floral corsages from the SIMS and ESM staff at the entrance. They were led to the cafeteria for safety briefing and light refreshment to prepare for the rest of the day’s programme.

In the absence of Mr. David Baldry, CEO, BP Shipping who was earlier scheduled, Mr John Ridgway Deputy Chief Executive of BP and Chief Operating Officer of BP Shipping Ltd unveiled  the inauguration plaque at the entrance of the Administrative building. Thereafter, distinguished guests took part in cutting the ceremonial ribbon and lit the auspicious diya ( traditional brass lamp) to mark the occasion.

Guests and staff of both ESM and SIMS then proceeded to the parade ground where the cadets presented an impressive march pass and guard of honour for the chief guest. The parade also included a naval band to add to the festive atmosphere.

All guests divided in smaller teams were then taken for a tour around the entire campus including the unique Ship-in-Campus, which was termed as the very best in the entire country by Mr. Ajoy Chatterjee, Additional Director General of Shipping and Chief Surveyor to the Indian Government during his speech in the inaugural function.

The guests later gathered around in another pride of the campus facilities – the 350-capacity auditorium- well decorated with white and blue orchid bouquets and jasmine garlands adding fragrance to the entire atmosphere. Managing Director of Executive Ship Management, Mr. B. S. Teeka addressed the gathering in the auditorium and explained that due to an acute shortage of well-trained seafarers, the company decided to start its own training facility, SIMS. It started with the SIMS Post-Sea facility in 2002 and in an effort to produce a future generation of world-class seafarers, went ahead to establish the pre-sea campus in 2004. (We’ve included his verbatim speech later in this supplement)

Other eminent guests and dignitaries that spoke during the event also termed SIMS Lonavala as the best maritime training facility in India and a world-class facility unparalleled anywhere in the world.

In his inaugural speech, Chief Guest, Mr John Ridgway, lauded SIMS as an “Extraordinary Achievement”. This was supported by Mr Ajoy Chatterjee who unhesitatingly declared the ship-in-campus as the best in the country. He also commented that he wished “(he) was a cadet once more to be in this campus”.

Guests and staff were then treated to a scrumptious buffet spread at the institute’s cafeteria and each guest was presented a little commemorative souvenir designed in the replica of one of the campus buildings.

In the evening, the entire event was concluded with a Cocktail and Dinner Reception at the Grand Salon of the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. Here, with the help of a power point presentation, guests were told about the story of SIMS Lonavala, the hardship and exuberance of developing this world-class campus. Specially designed commemorative pewter plaques by our in-house artistic team were presented to the special dignitaries present on the occasion as a token of appreciation. All those who had contributed to the development of the campus and particularly to the ship-in-campus were also publicly commended by Managing Director B.S.Teeka on behalf of the entire organization.

The inauguration of SIMS Lonavala marks yet another milestone in ESM’s achievements and the progress of SIMS and this day will be etched in our memories forever.