The Hindu Business Line : Jaisu Shipping to finalise Mauritius dredging tender

THE Kandla-based Jaisu Shipping Company Pvt Ltd is in the process of finalising a tender contract to carry out capital dredging operations in Port Louis, Mauritius.

The four-month contract involves deepening the Port Louis Harbour to facilitate movement of deep draughted vessels at a cost of $12 million.

Jaisu Shipping is the only Indian dredging company that responded to the tender floated by the authorities there, said Mr Suresh G. Kewalramani, the company's Chairman and Managing Director.

As part of expanding its dredging works beyond India, the company also plans to participate in maintenance and capital dredging work contracts in Bangladesh and Karachi at a cost of Rs 50 crore and Rs 40 crore, respectively, he added.

Jaisu is well equipped in terms of equipment, know-how and manpower to successfully dredge even in deep sea or channels having cross-currents or large tidal variations of up to 10 metres, he said.

To expand its scope of work to more areas, Mr Kewalramani said the company plans to acquire two more dredgers in two years at an estimated investment of Rs 110 crore.

The dredgers include trailer suction and cutter suction, which are both required for capital dredging as well as maintenance dredging.

As Indian yards are full of orders for the next few years, he said Jaisu had no option but to purchase dredgers from abroad. However, preference will be given to acquiring dredgers from Germany and the Netherlands, he added.

Jaisu Shipping, which entered the field of dredging in 1995, has a fleet of seven sea-going self-propelled dredgers, comprising three trailer suction, two cutter suction, one rock-cutter multi-bucket and one grab dredger. It is the only dredging company in Asia, operating under a single umbrella employing different kinds of dredging technologies and methodologies, he said.

On the ongoing maintenance dredging work at Kochi Port, Mr Kewalramani said the company had successfully completed the work for the year 2004-05.

The target depth of 12.8 metres from chart datum had been achieved and maintained round the year, facilitating movement of deep draughted vessels in the port channel.

The company had bagged the contract for Rs 27 crore, and it had deployed an additional Rock Bucket Ladder Dredger to dredge the hard soil accumulated at the edges of the main channel.

This had reduced the siltation rate and the width of the channel had increased, he said.

The deployment of the additional dredger had helped the company achieve the requisite channel depth well ahead of schedule, he added.

Welcoming the Budget proposal to include dredgers in the scope of tonnage tax net, he said this would be a major boost for existing Indian dredging companies and would also lead to new entrants into the field.

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