The Hindu Business Line : `Professional manpower need of the hour'

THE Chairman and Managing Director of Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), Mr Neerav Gupta, has stressed the need to develop professional manpower in the dredging sector.

Speaking at a seminar on `Capital and maintenance dredging practices in major ports of India', organised by the New Mangalore Port Trust here on Friday, he said the sector is in need of professional manpower. According to an estimate, there is a shortage of around 10,000 floating officers worldwide.

Quoting a recent study conducted in the UK, Mr Gupta said most of the youngsters do not know the importance of sea life. One of the reasons for the lack of interest in this sector might be the attraction towards new areas like information technology. The IT sector pays a good salary to the youngsters compared to others.

Stating that there is no institute to train people in dredging, he said that DCI would be happy to help if one takes up the initiative. Only two institutes — one in Holland and the other in the US — are training people in dredging. Foreign players dominate dredging operations in India, though the country has a 2 per cent share in the euro 7-billion world dredging market.

Though maintenance dredging dominates the Indian market, capital dredging is set to grow in the years to come. It is expected that around Rs 6,000 crore will be spent on capital dredging in the next 10 years.

Apart from the Sethusamudram project and channel deepening at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port and the Kolkata Port, many private ports are coming up in the country. There is a good scope for dredging activities in these areas, he said.

Stating that shipyards are not interested in building dredgers, he said they should focus on this sector also. Most shipyards take interest in building very large crude carriers and container carriers than dredgers, he added.