PRADEEP RANA | NEW DELHI Despite clampdown on movement around the world because of the raging coronavirus pandemic, the Indian ports clocked 100,000 plus crew swaps, making India the only country with highest number of crew changes in the world. "Ministry of Shipping has facilitated more than 1,00,000 crew change on Indian ports and through charter flights. It is the highest number of crew changes in the world. Crew change consists of replacing one of the ship's crew members with another one and involves sign-on the ships and sign-off the ships procedures," a statement from Ministry of Shipping said here. Lauding the efforts to facilitate stranded seafarers during the pandemic, the Minister for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya has stressed that the seafarers should be able to approach the ministry during the difficult time and no seafarer should suffer due to poor grievance redress system. Mandaviya appreciated the continued efforts done by the DG, Shipping Amitabh Kumar, especially for facilitating the stranded seafarer during this difficult time. Minister instructed DG Shipping to come up with a robust grievances redress mechanism to facilitate the seafarers. Maritime sector is among the worst hit sectors due to Corona pandemic. Despite that all the Indian Ports were operational and providing essential services throughout the pandemic and main pillar for the smooth supply chain for India and the world were the seafarers. Seafarers had to suffer due to closing of Sign On & Sign Off and lockdowns and movement restrictions imposed by the various countries worldwide. To sustain the maritime transportation during the pandemic situation, DG Shipping said various initiatives were taken such as extensions of various certificates required for sailing, online E-pass facility for travel and so on. "An online utility has been created for verification of seafarers for charted flights and for uploading details of stranded seafarers along with online ship registrations and online charter licensing," DG, Shipping said. DG Shipping received communications via emails, tweets, and letters from more than 2000 maritime stakeholders and took immediate responsive action to facilitate their needs. E-learning for module courses and online virtual course have also been conducted by DG shipping and more than 35,000 students enrolled for e-learning. Online Exit Exam is being conducted for the seafarers after completing online courses and they can now appear in the exam from the comfort of their homes in this unprecedented time of COVID-19 pandemic.