DCI, KPT to chose Chinese dredgers for Hooghly

Kolkata: A high-power team, comprising two senior officials of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), Kolkata Port Trust’s Director of Marine and representatives of a Mumbai-based private firm, will leave for China shortly to identify dredgers suitable for operation in the Hooghly river near Haldia dock.

The team is to inspect three dredgers now deployed in three locations in Chinese waters and two of them, depending on their suitability, will be chosen.

Once the dredgers have been selected, the Mumbai-based firm will acquire them and make them available for deployment in the Hooghly.

DCI, on behalf of Kolkata Port Trust, will be responsible for deciding on the suitability, selection and operation of the dredgers in the Hooghly.

“We do not know if the dredgers to be inspected in China will be suitable for our purpose and if they are found suitable it will be end-December or early January before they arrive at Haldia for dredging,” Capt. A.K. Bagchi, Director of Marine, who will be visiting China to inspect the vessel, told newspersons here on Wednesday.

“There are several formalities which have to be complied with before the selected dredgers will be in a position to start operation in the Hooghly.”

It might be noted that a couple of weeks ago, Capt. Bagchi and other senior officials of KoPT visited Nagapattinam to inspect another Chinese dredger, Meka I, acquired by a Andhra Pradesh-based firm. But the team found the dredger unsuitable for Hooghly operation.

Meanwhile, the number of dredgers active in the Hooghly continues to be five. The number is to rise to six within a day or two, with the deployment of DCI dredger Dredge VII. Two more DCI dredgers, Dredge XII and Dredge XIV, now under repair, are to join the Hooghly operation in the current month itself, add KoPT sources.