The Hindu Business Line : Kolkata port may get nod to buy 2 dredgers

Kolkata, Feb. 14 The Shipping Ministry is considering if Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) could be allowed to acquire two trailer suction dredgers to facilitate its maintenance dredging in the river Hooghly.

Giving this information here on Thursday, Dr A.K. Chanda, Chairman of Kolkata Port Trust, said the public sector Dredging Corporation of India, responsible for maintenance dredging in Hooghly almost entirely, might find it hard to meet the rising requirement in the Hooghly river, as DCI had to undertake dredging at many other ports and channels.

Also, Dr Chanda pointed out that two of KoPT’s own three dredgers were old. “Churni” “Subarnekha”, each more than 40 years old, must be replaced without further delay.

Asked if the port would go for outright purchase of new dredgers by placing orders with a shipyard or acquisition of old dredgers on lease, Dr Chanda replied that nothing had yet been finalised. “We’ll certainly go for the best option,” he said, pointing out that with the dredging market on fire, an acquisition, new or old would be expensive. In the case of new acquisition, there was another problem: the delivery time could extend to three to four years, he said.

KoPT has two other dredgers, both grab dredgers, for undertaking dredging within the dock. However, one of them, “Midnapore”, deployed in the Kolkata Dock System, too is very old and therefore needs to be replaced soon.

Mega alliance

Referring to the country’s mounting dredging requirement of which Hooghly accounted for the largest share, the KoPT Chairman emphasised the need for doing something urgently to meet the requirement.

The proposed mega alliance in dredging with participation of the Shipping Corporation of India and a few major port trusts, including KoPT, he felt, should help mitigate the problem to some extent. The mega alliance, when commissioned, should give preference to the participating ports. “Ernst & Young has submitted the report and various other details are being worked out,” he said.

Earlier, Dr Chanda launched “Ma Ganga”, a 932 GRT pilot-cum-survey vessel, for the port. Built by Bharati Shipyard at its Kolkata yard at a cost of Rs 13.7 crore, the vessel would be used as a pilot vessel during the monsoon months. In other months, it would undertake river survey work. “This is for the first time a pilot vessel of this size has been constructed in India,” said Mr Gautam Roy of Corporated Consultancy & Engineering Enterprise Pvt Ltd, responsible for construction of the vessel on behalf of Bharati Shipyard. “The vessel has been fitted with a sewerage treatment plant to protect the river from probable pollution from the discharge”.