The economy slowdown notwithstanding, the State-owned Dredging Corporation India (DCI) is gearing up to face the competition from private players by augmenting its fleet and focusing on improving efficiency parameters.
The category-I ‘mini ratna’ company with its headquarters in the city has clocked a turnover of Rs.730 crore during 2013-14 and is confident of enhancing it to Rs.850 crore during the next fiscal. Top on its agenda is to place an order for a trailer suction hopper dredger (TSHD) by entering into a memorandum of understanding with Paradip Port Trust.
Talks at present are at advanced stage. Part of the amount required for the futuristic dredger will be obtained from PPT as loan. In lieu of its repayment DCI will offer its service in dredging to the port. A new dredger will cost somewhere around Rs.700 crore to to Rs.800 crore.
“Once we strike a deal, we have to place the order to get the vessel ready for induction in two years with a long-term dredging contract,” DCI Chairman and Managing Director D.K. Mohanty told The Hindu.
New acquisitionDCI at present has 15 vessels of different sizes and capacity. The Dredge-21, its new acquisition proved its worth by completing beach nourishment project near RK Beach in a record time. The work was placed by Visakhapatnam Port Trust as part of maintenance dredging.
Capt. Mohanty said the scope for capital dredging would go up throwing new window of opportunities if new ports were constructed and hoped that the Centre’s decision to construct two major ports -- one at Dugarajapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Sagar in West Bengal, both on the East Coast, at a cost of Rs.16,000 crore, would provide a lot of opportunities.
A special purpose vehicle is being formed to execute the Dugarajapatnam project in which Visakhapatnam Port Trust has come forward to pick up majority stake. It is proposed to implement the project by seeking investors to develop berths under Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model as part of landlord port policy of Ministry of Shipping.
