Capital dredging work begins at Paradip Port

PARADIP: After four years, capital dredging for deepening the Paradip Port’s channels was restarted on Sunday. Port authorities are hopeful of completing the work in three months.They said the Paradip Port has initiated work for deepening the channel to handle cape size vessels of 1,25,000 DWT capacity. The Rs 253.36-crore dredging contract has been awarded to the Dredging Corporation of India.  On Sunday noon, the Corporation’s dredger Back Hoe-I was pressed into operation in the presence of PPT’s Chairman G Jagannath Rao.  “The entrance channel will be deepened from 17.1 metres to 19 metres. By deepening the approach and entrance channels, Paradip Port will be in a position to handle cape size vessels of 1,25,000 DWT capacity by June,” the Port Chairman said.Earlier, the Dredging Corporation had commenced the work on June 14, 2008, with the then PPT chairman K Raghuramaiah launching the work on board the dredger CSD Aquarius. Initially, cutter and suction dredger CSD Aquarius was used for dredging. However, the dredger failed to dredge stones and heavy materials from the sea and subsequently higher capacity dredgers were to be deployed. However, due to alleged negligence of officials concerned, no step was taken to deploy higher capacity dredgers delaying the work by four years.  Sources said the Corporation could not start the work immediately as it did not have the required dredgers.Meanwhile, the original cost estimate of Rs 154 crore for the dredging has escalated by Rs 103.36 crore. The total work includes 15 million cubic metres of dredging.