The Hindu Business Line : Navigability of Hooghly near Haldia dock a matter of concern

Myriad challenges
The minimum requirement of draught is more then seven metres and decline in draught has several other implications.
The ships calling at the dock have to have lower average parcel loads.
Which means for loading/unloading the same volume of cargoes more ships are needed.
This in turn will increase congestion and the consequent pre-berthing detention of vessels.

Our Bureau

Kolkata, March 4

The navigability of the Hooghly river near Haldia dock continues to be a matter of concern to the dock authorities as the Union Government is going slow on the River Regulatory Scheme, whose main component is capital dredging at Balari bar off the dock.

The siltation in the river is rising, and with it the shoaling. On Monday, the draught dropped to 6.2 metres against the minimum requirement of more then seven metres.

As a result, the number one oil jetty is threatened and the number two too is not in a very comfortable position either. The decline in draught has several other implications.

The ships calling at the dock have to have lower average parcel loads.

Earlier, the average parcel load used to be 22,000/23,000 tonnes per ship, dropped to 20,000 tonnes now.

Which means for loading/unloading the same volume of cargoes more ships will be needed.

This in turn will increase congestion and the consequent pre-berthing detention of vessels.

The problem of pre-berthing detention also gets aggravated because of the limitation in the operation of the lock of the impounded dock. In other words, the decline in navigability has thrown up myriad challenges.

“The situation is alarming”, Mr Rajeev Dube, Deputy Chairman of the Kolkata Port Trust in-charge of Haldia dock, told Business Line over phone from Haldia.

“We’ve decided to step up maintenance dredging at Jellingham and accordingly all Dredging Corporation of India’s dredgers currently deployed at different points in the river have been asked to move to Jellingham”.

Right now DCI has five of its dredgers deployed in the Hooghly, all engaged in maintenance dredging.

The River Regulatory Scheme, designed to improve the navigability of the Hooghly river near Haldia dock, is now undergoing cost revision.

The original cost estimate, worked out in 2003-04, was Rs 330 crore, subsequently revised upward to Rs 421 crore. It is over two years now the last revision took place.

Once the present round of cost revision exercise is over, fresh clearances have to be obtained from the Government.