The Hindu Business Line : Shipping Ministry mulls increasing draught for major ports

The Ministry was planning to set up a deep sea port off the coast of West Bengal, with a draught of 20 m to cater to vessels with a capacity of more than 1.5 lakh teus.

Kochi April 2 The Union Shipping Ministry is contemplating an action plan for the next five years to increase the draught in the major ports in the country up to 18 m to handle bigger size vessels.

The size of vessels worldwide is increasing over the years and Indian ports should also equip themselves to handle these types of vessels by deepening the channel to at least 14 m, sources said.

Most of the ports in the country are having less than 14 m draught and the ports depending on their requirements have to increase the draught to 16, 18 and 20 m respectively in later stages.

The sources pointed out that the new deep draught ports in China go 40 km into the sea to receive larger vessels. To keep pace with the growing economy, India should also have most modern ports with deeper draughts so as to handle these new generation bigger vessels.

Action plan

In this context, the Ministry has prepared an action plan to increase the draught in major ports such as Kolkata from the present 7 to 9 m, Haldia Dock Complex from 8.5 to 9, Visakhapatnam from 17 to 18 m, Ennore from 13.5 to 16.5, Chennai from 17 to 17.5, Tuticorin from 10.7 to 14.7, Kochi from 12.5 to 14.5 m, New Mangalore from 14 to 17 m, Goa from 13.3 to 14.3 m, Mumbai from 9.1 to 14 m, JNPT from 12.5 to 14 m and Kandla from 11.7 to 14.5 m.

It may be recalled that the Shipping Minister during the meeting of the Maritime States Development Council held in December last year at Kochi said the Ministry was planning to set up a deep sea port off the coast of West Bengal.

The new port will be like that of Shanghai Port far away from the coast with a draught of 20 m to cater to vessels with a capacity of more than 1.5 lakh teus.

Dredging at Kochi

The first stage of capital dredging at Kochi to reach 12.5 m was undertaken at an estimated cost of Rs 33 crore. A 12.5 m draught enables the terminal to handle container ships carrying 5,000 + teus. The channels are to be further deepened for 14.5 m and widened to 280 m by April 1, 2009, coinciding with the commissioning of the container transhipment terminal project at Vallarpadam. This draught would enable the handling of container vessels carrying 8,000 + teus.

Moreover, the sources pointed out that there is a need for creating additional indigenous dredging capacity in the country. At present, there is only the DCI under the Government, but it is not having sufficient capacity to meet the requirements.

A proposal for forming a dredging company by a consortium comprising the Shipping Corporation of India and a few major ports is under consideration, the sources added.