The Hindu Business Line : 5 firms bid for Paradip channel dredging job

Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) and four foreign dredging firms have responded so far to the fresh invitation for bids by the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) for undertaking capital dredging for widening and deepening of the navigable channel leading to the port, according to PPT sources.

Bidders

The four foreign firms - Boskalis, Dredging International, Jan del Nul, and Hyundai - had earlier bid for the tender floated in December last year for undertaking the same job.

However, the tender was subsequently cancelled. A fresh tender was floated in June this year.

DCI did not bid then, but this time it has responded to the tender.

PPT authorities are not sure if there will be any more bidders for the job. As the last date for submitting bids is July 25, the actual position will be known only after that date.

Mr K. Raghuramaiah, Chairman of PPT, told Business Line that he was hopeful of the contract being awarded in the third quarter of the current fiscal.

"Despite the cancellation of the earlier tender, we have not really lost time," he said, adding that even if the job had been awarded earlier, no work could have been undertaken during the monsoon.

Project

The job involves deepening of the navigable channel of the port - around 19 m in the approach channel and a little more than 17 m in the entrance channel, sufficient to yield a draft of 16 m in the proposed iron ore-cum-coal berth.

Also, the length of the channel has to be extended from two km now to 10 km. An estimated 15 million cubic m of silt has to be removed. The total cost is estimated at Rs 136 crore.