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Santanu Sanyal

Several foreign and at least two Indian dredging firms have responded to PPT's invitation for bids to undertake dredging work to extend and deepen the present navigable channel of the port.

Kolkata , Feb. 15

PARADIP Port Trust (PPT) will soon invite bids from private firms for construction of a deep-draft iron ore-cum-coal berth on BOT basis.

"We are waiting for the Rail India Technical & Economic Services (RITES) to submit the feasibility report and we hope to award the contract before March 31," Mr K. Raghuramaiah, Chairman of PPT, told Business Line over the phone from New Delhi.

It might be noted that the port authorities have revised the earlier plan to have a deep draft iron ore berth and decided to have instead an iron-ore-cum-coal berth. "It is risky to build a berth depending only on one commodity whose fortune again will depend on the fluctuations in the world market," Mr Raghuramaiah said indicating that the proposed berth would have a draft of 16 metres, enough for handling Capesize vessels (1,25,000 dwt).

Dredging: Meanwhile, several foreign and at least two Indian dredging firms have responded to PPT's invitation for bids to undertake dredging work to extend and deepen the present navigable channel of the port. The Indian firms include the public sector Dredging Corporation of India and the private Jaisu Shipping. Among the foreign firms are Dredging International, Van Oord, Boskalis, Jan de Nul, Great Lakes and Hyundai. The pre-bid meetings have been held and port authorities will receive bids till February 24.

The port's navigable channel would be extended from the present 2 km to 10 km; also higher depths would be obtained — around 19 metres in the approach channel and little more than 17 metres in the entrance channel, sufficient to achieve a draft of 16 metres in the proposed iron ore-cum-coal berth. The dredging work, estimated to cost Rs 160 crore, would involve removal of an estimated 15 million cubic metres of silt and would be completed within one year. "We have plans to award the contract by May," the PPT Chairman said.

It is, however, felt that the work on the extending and deepening of the channel will be completed much before the proposed iron ore-cum-coal berth becomes ready for operation. It will be at least two years from the day the contract is awarded to complete the construction of the berth.

The immediate beneficiary of the channel work thus will be the oil jetty and two coal berths and three other berths in the central quay.

However, some dredging will also be needed in the basins in front of these berths to make them compatible with the longer and deeper channel.

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