Mumbai Port Pilot Recruitment 2026

Mumbai Port Pilot Recruitment 2026: Overview

Mumbai Port Authority (MbPA), the major port run under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, is taking in Pilots on contract for its Marine Department. A pilot is the officer who boards an incoming ship and takes her safely through the harbour and onto a berth, and MbPA needs master mariners who can do that work at one of the busiest ports on the west coast. You can join under Scheme I, where you serve on a 24 hours on / off pattern and draw a monthly package, or under Scheme II, which is a 15 days on / 15 days off arrangement paid at a daily rate. This advertisement stays open — MbPA considers applications as and when vacancies arise, so there is no rush of a single deadline.

Service Conditions and Caveats

• You start as a Trainee Pilot: until the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways issues your pilotage licence you serve as a Trainee Pilot on contract. Training runs for six months or more and includes the ELPT course. Only after the licence is issued are you designated Pilot on Contract, given a flag code and allowed to handle pilotage on your own.
• Contract length: the first contract runs for three years and can be extended by mutual consent, subject to your medical fitness.
• Medical fitness is continuous: checks are once in two years until 50, yearly after that till 60, and every six months beyond 60.
• Five-year commitment: you have to serve MbPA for at least five years — leaving earlier means refunding the training cost the port spent on you.
• Guarantee deduction: ten per cent of your monthly pay is held back as a guarantee for completing the contract, and is returned when you finish it. The amount is forfeited if you leave without notice or if disciplinary action is taken against you.
• Notice period: under Scheme I either side can end the contract with one month's written notice; under Scheme II you give three months' notice while the port can close it with one.
• Housing: Scheme I pilots can get port accommodation on payment of rent at twice the prescribed licence fee, with electricity and water on actuals. Scheme II carries no township accommodation, but free lodging and boarding inside the dock at Indira Dock and Jawahar Dweep during working hours.
• Movement out of the city: a Pilot on Contract needs written permission from the Deputy Conservator or Harbour Master before leaving the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
• No parity with regular staff: a contract pilot cannot claim any right, title or interest on par with a regular port employee doing the same work.
• Retired port and government officers: if you draw a pension from MbPA or a government service, your package is reduced under the scheme's own formula.

Application Submission Notes

Download the prescribed application form from the MbPA website, fill it and choose whichever of the three routes suits you. You can walk in to the office of the Deputy Conservator / Harbour Master, 1st Floor, Port Bhavan, Shoorji Vallabhdas Marg, Ballard Estate, Mumbai - 400 001 between 15.00 and 16.00 hours on any Wednesday other than a bank holiday, carrying the filled form and all your originals. You can also post the form or e-mail it with scanned copies to ar.apandkar@mumbaiport.gov.in.

If you are already serving a government, semi-government, public sector or autonomous body, your application has to come through proper channel — send an advance copy to MbPA and bring the NOC with you to the interview. For anything unclear the advertisement lists the port's own numbers: Dy. Secretary (GAD) on 022-6656 4009 and 022-6656 4018, and the Master Pilot in the Marine Department on 022-6656 4024.

• Pilot vessels through Mumbai harbour and into the port's waters
• Berth and unberth ships at the dock berths
• Take up posting on the port's dredgers when assigned
• Work as Supervisor on the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) desk
• Handle every movement allotted during your duty hours on a turn basis
• Follow the duty roster set by the Dock Master, Harbour Master and Deputy Conservator
• Keep to the port's rules on conduct, discipline and safe pilotage at all times