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Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the agency tasked with the developing waterways, has sought bids from local and overseas shipbuilders to buy four new self-propelled cutter suction dredgers to deepen the waterway stretches on rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra.
The move has irked the local dredging industry with an executive saying that IWAI is procuring very expensive, highly specification dredgers while dredging companies are “sitting idle”.
Government-owned major port trusts earlier had their own dredgers to maintain the water depths. But, these ports have moved away from the ‘purchase’ model due to the high cost of purchase as well as maintenance.
“IWAI’s plan is a lose-lose situation,” a dredging industry executive said. “This will not only cost the government and tax payers money but at the same time keep other highly competitive dredgers idling,” he said.
But, IWAI, which has budgeted some ₹160 crore for the purchase, says that it is pursuing a ‘mix and match’ strategy on dredging of waterways.
In October, IWAI raised ₹660 crore by selling bonds. In May, the Cabinet agreed to allocate 2.5 per cent of the proceeds (about ₹2,000 crore) from the Central Road Fund (CRF) every year to develop and maintain national waterways.
“We have taken a conscious call on buying the dredgers because when we have our own equipment, then we can give it on operation and maintenance (O&M) to third parties. Our dredging needs are small, small shoals at far spread locations. Even we do not know 2-3 months in advance where the shoal will occur . So, we have to keep the basic minimum hardware ourselves. When we have very big capital dredging works, then we always float tenders for such works. There, the contractors can come, put their equipment and dredge,” a IWAI official explained.
IWAI currently runs a fleet of 13 cutter suction dredgers, three amphibian dredgers and three water injection dredgers.
Manpower shortage“In some cases, we engage manpower, we only have manning contract but in some other cases, we give it on total O&M basis. We are giving dredgers on O&M because our sanctioned manpower strength is very limited. We are running short of manpower,” the IWAI official said.
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