To reduce costs, the port decided to go for maintenance dredging for three consecutive years and received a competitive quote from DCI.
The work was awarded to Mercator for the removal of four million cubic meter for an amount of Rs 60.80 crore. As against the original estimate of quantity to be dredged at two million cubic meter, the Tender Committee has brought out that they expect an additional siltation of 1.5 million on account of the monsoon in the ICTT berth basin.
The capital dredging contract initially stipulated completion of the work by January 31, 2010. The required depth could not be achieved in the ICTT berth basin even though the contractor had been given several extensions up to March 31, 2011. The terminal operator had also informed the port that large ships could not be brought to the terminal due to lack of draught in the ICTT berth basin. The port spends heavily on annual maintenance dredging, which is a drag on its resources. The figures show that the port had spent Rs 29.21 crore for maintenance dredging in 2000, which had gone up to Rs 75.08 crore last fiscal. Earlier an estimated 11 million cubic metres of silt used to be removed every year. This is expected to touch 70 million cubic metres shortly with the commissioning of various projects in the port area.