The Kolkata Port Trust may implement a technology that will help it save Rs.250 crore annually through reduced dredging costs, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said.
Dredging costs at the country’s only riverine port is likely to get reduced from around Rs.400 crore to around Rs.150 crore due to a new process of dredging suggested by the IIT-Madras on the basis of recommendations made by the Boston Consulting Group. The two port systems of KoPT at Kolkata and Haldia have a draft of around 7.5 metres.
Boston Consulting, on the basis of a Ministry mandate, had made 120 recommendations on improving the performance of all the major Indian ports. “About 20 suggestions are being implemented and the rest would be put in place in two years,” Mr Gadkari said adding that it is not possible to improve exports without good ports.
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“For this government, waterways had the highest priority in the logistics segment followed by railways and roadways.” Against the previous government’s pace of laying two km of roads daily, now 18 km of roadways were being laid, he said. The target is to increase it to 30 km a day by March 2016. The Minister also said that within five years, 50 lakh jobs are expected to be generated by the transport sector, which would contribute two per cent to the GDP.