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Our Bureau

SCI's vessel acquisition awaits Cabinet nod

Kolkata June 5 Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will soon float a global tender inviting bids from firms interested in preparing a feasibility report for the dredging firm it plans to set up in association with the port trusts of Kolkata, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru and Cochin Shipyards Ltd.

"The feasibility report, once finalised, will be placed before the Union Cabinet for consideration and necessary steps will be initiated for the formation of a company once the approval has been obtained," according to a spokesman for the public sector shipping company.

The equity structure and other details would be finalised later.

Currently a steering committee comprising the heads of all five organisations undertakes preliminary works.

The country's dredging requirement, both capital and maintenance type, is increasing but the state-owned Dredging Corporation of India is unable to handle more jobs due to capacity constraint. Maintenance dredging comprises the bulk of DCI's work of about 50 million cubic metres annually, and dredging in Hooghly river accounts for the single-largest maintenance dredging work, followed by the capital dredging for the Sethusamudram project.

The experience with foreign dredging contractors, mostly Dutch or Belgian, has not always been happy for several ports; hence the proposal for another dredging firm with the participation of various state-owned organisations.

Meanwhile, SCI's proposal to acquire 11 vessels — Aframax tankers, Handymax bulk carriers and anchor handling vessels — awaits Cabinet approval. It may be noted that SCI has already placed orders for 12 vessels. Except two container vessels of 4,400 teus each, all the others are tankers — VLCCs, LR tankers and MR tankers. Only the MR tankers have been ordered with a Chinese yard; the rest were with Korean yards. Delivery will start from 2008.

The first vessel to be delivered will be a container vessel.

More Stories on : Shipping | Shipping Corporation of India Ltd

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