The Hindu Business Line : Four foreign dredging cos shortlisted for JNPT project

, Four foreign dredging companies have been shortlisted by the Jawaharlal Nehru port to execute its Rs 800-crore project for dredging of the harbour entrance channel. This is seen as another indication that overseas companies are steadily gaining ground in the domestic dredging market.

The companies have edged out the State-owned Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), which till a few years ago virtually held a total monopoly on the domestic dredging market. Clearly, the heat is on DCI to sharpen its competitive edge to beat the financially and technologically resourceful foreign dredging companies.

Sources said the four dredging companies that were shortlisted for the project are Boscalis and Van Oord BV of the Netherlands, Jan de nul of Belgium and Dredging International.

Big loss

Industry analysts feel this could be a major loss for DCI, as the project is significant in terms of size and scope. Currently, large size vessels having a draught of 12.5 metres have to navigate through the Mumbai harbour channel and the JNPT channel making use of the tidal window. Due to this, the port is deepening and widening the channel in two phases — in the first phase, the channel will be dredged up to 14 metres draught to accommodate container vessels of capacity 6,000 TEUs and in the second phase the draught will be further increased to 15 metres .

For some time now, international dredging majors from Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea and the US have been increasingly eyeing the growing Indian dredging market. These companies see significant opportunities in the domestic dredging sector, especially with India lining up major port expansion projects and the clearing of the decks for implementation of the Rs 2,500-crore Sethusamudram ship channel projects.

Apart from the Netherlands and the Belgium-based companies that have already set up shop in India, other companies, such as Penta-Ocean of Japan, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock co of US and Hyundai Engineering of Korea are looking at India as a major growth opportunity in the dredging sector. In fact, these international players command a major share in the global dredging market.

`Major thrust'

As per the Government's Tenth Plan, the various port expansion programmes would require a total capital dredging requirement of about 144 million cubic metres during this period, involving all the major ports.

"But, what is expected to give a major thrust to the growth in this segment is the Sethusamudram project," an analyst said. DCI has already been awarded, on nomination basis, the first of the four sections in the 167 km long channel — this section involves dredging to the extent of 13.5 million cubic metres to get a draft of 12 metres.

The other three sections are open to competitive bidding, with DCI and the foreign dredging majors competing. Totally, the project envisages dredging of 82.5 million cubic metres, with the cost of the project estimated to be Rs 2,427 crore.

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