Cochin Port, Shipyard & Vallarpadam ICTT

[Malayaali]

Kochi to be showcased at Hamburg Port Festival

Kochi's emerging prominence as the gateway to South India and its importance as a world-class cruise destination will be the highlights of the promotional efforts by the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) at the Hamburg Port Festival in Germany to be held from May 11.

The upcoming cruise terminal and related facilities, and Kochi becoming a preferred destination for major cruise operators will be highlighted at the festival, which will have four stalls from India, sources in the Cochin Port Trust said on Sunday.

A high-level delegation from CPT, led by its chairman Paul Antoney, will be in Hamburg representing India along with the New Mangalore port, Inland Waterways Authority of India and the Union Ministry of Shipping.

Sources said that the port authority here foresaw cruise-related operations as a major, emerging business and a Cruise Cell had been constituted to oversee the development of the port's potential.

The Hamburg Port Festival, which celebrates the birthday of the Hamburg port in Hanseatic city, brings together the key players in the port and water transport sectors across the world. The institutions representing India will highlight the country's potential and draw investor interests, according to sources.

Cruise terminal

Meanwhile, an official of CPT said here that work on the international cruise terminal and the passengers' plaza was expected to be completed in 40 to 45 days.

The completion of the new facility would make Kochi more attractive to cruise operators, who had now turned Kochi into a regular destination for most of their world cruises.

The number of cruise liners calling at the port has exceeded 40 over the last two years and the number looks set to go up this season. The largest and most luxurious of cruise liners have already made repeated calls at Kochi and the CPT Cruise Cell's endeavour is to make the city a major stopover on the east-west route between Europe and Australia.

[Malayaali]

Gateway Distriparks CFS begin operations at Vallarpadam

CFS is located in 6.5 acres opposite to DP World Cochin


cc: Manorama

[Malayaali]

PLA Navy Vessel to dock at Kochi

The cadet training ship of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ‘Zheng He’, which is on a world cruise, will arrive in Kochi today as part of a goodwill visit to India. The Chinese ocean training vessel is expected to dock at the Cochin Port at 10 am. Cadet visit to the Southern Naval Command, the maritime museum at INS Dronacharya and the recently commissioned INS Sudarshini, in addition to friendly football matches are part of the itinerary.

The ship with a 310-member crew, has a high-level delegation, including officials from the High Commission and an admiral of the PLA Navy along with 110 cadets from the Dalian Naval Academy.

[Malayaali]

Gateway Distriparks sets up container freight station at Vallarpadam

Gateway Distriparks (Kerala) Ltd (GDKL) has started CFS operations handling export container through the ICTT Vallarpadam.

This is the first container freight station located opposite to ICTT to facilitate the EXIM trade in the region. Spread across 6.5 acres, the CFS will have warehousing facilities and container storage facilities.

It will also provide for a separate area which will permit Customs authorities to inspect cargo on wheels. These combined facilities, along with the CFS’s proximity to ICTT, will primarily help in lowering transaction costs for importers and exporters and strengthen the trade.

GDKL owns another 22 acres in Kalamassery which will be developed in the next phase, the officials said.

GDKL, incorporated in 2006, is a joint venture between GDL and Chakiat Group with 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. GDL is one of the largest players in the container logistics industry with CFSs at Mumbai, Chennai, Vizag and now Kochi and rail-linked ICDs (Inland Container Depots) near Gurgaon (NCR), Ludhiana & Faridabad.

Chakiat is a well-established business group into shipping and related activities since 1952. Chakiat is also a shareholder of ICTT.

[Malayaali]

Tender for LPG terminal's jetty to be invited in June

Another major project gets revival

KOCHI: Cochin Port Trust (CPT) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will jointly set up a jetty for super gas tankers for the LPG terminal coming up at Puthuvypeen. A recent meeting of CPT and IOC, convened by the shipping secretary P K Sinha in New Delhi, decided to award the contract for the jetty in June.

IOC will be submitting the dimensions of the berth to CPT, which would then work out the final estimates. Official sources told TOI that operational issues like wharfage will also be resolved by May 17. IOC will give a written confirmation along with a draft MoU on the construction and the usage of the jetty.

According to CPT sources, IOC would provide the fund for the jetty and CPT will coordinate the construction work. The jetty will have facilities to berth tankers which are over 230 metres in length and it will have a draft of around 12.5 metres. The jetty will be jointly managed by CPT and IOC. The jetty would be used by IOC exclusively for about 161 days a year and would be available for use by other vessels for the remaining time period.

The LPG terminal is set to have capacity of 0.6 million tonnes and its cost is estimated to be about Rs 180 crore. Gas from the terminal will be supplied to IOC stations in Salem, Tamil Nadu and Udaymaperoor in Kerala through pipelines, which will incur separate investments. The terminal is expected to yield a saving of nearly Rs 200 crore in terms of transportation cost.

When contacted, IOC officials confirmed that they were keen to set up the LPG terminal in Kochi and more meetings with CPT officials in the coming days will fine tune the project. "IOC board has already approved the project and if there are any revisions required it will again be placed before the board.''

[prakmrao]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

Major ports need to step up productivity

Completion of Capital Dredging (especially berth basin dredging to 16 m) was a big issue. Has the work been completed by the replacement contractor Mercator? If CPT is not able to maintain depths in approach channel and berth, the relaxation of cabotage rule will not help ICTT.

[Malayaali]

RCI’s Voyager of the Seas to visit Goa and Kochi this week

Voyager of the Seas, the second Royal Caribbean International (RCI) cruise ship to sail in Asia, will visit Goa on May 18 and Kochi on May 20, 2012 on its way from Dubai to Singapore.

The Voyager of the Seas, at 138,000 GRT, measuring 311 meters in length and 48 meters in breadth, spans 15 decks high and is double the size of RCI’s Legend of the Seas, which has been operating in Asia for four years (69,180 GRT, 271 meters length, 32.8 meters breadth and 11 decks high). The Voyager of the Seas, with a 3,114 guest capacity and the Legend of the Seas, with a 1,804 guest capacity, will together offer 4,918 berths in Asia.

Initially, the Voyager of the Seas will offer a range of three to five-nights cruises from Singapore sailing to Penang and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Phuket in Thailand. Subsequently, the ship will move to China and offer longer sailings including seven-night cruises from Shanghai and Tianjin (Beijing), to ports in Japan and South Korea.

The Voyager of the Seas will feature Royal Promenade – an indoor “main street”, an ice skating rink, 11 dining venues, sports facilities, children’s activities, entertainment and shopping, etc.

Speaking on the developments in the region, Gautam Chadha, Chief Executive, TIRUN Travel Marketing and India Representative of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., said “Increased consumer demand in Asia, especially from countries like China, has encouraged Royal Caribbean International to position an additional cruise ship in Asia. The fast growing Asia market has also resulted in development of cruise terminal facilities like the recent new facilities in China in Shanghai, Tianjin (Beijing) and Xiamen as well as Singapore’s new International Cruise Terminal.”

[Malayaali]

KITCO to design ambitious tea trade centre

Public sector consultancy organisation KITCO may be entrusted with the task of designing the integrated building complex for the proposed Cochin Tea Trade Centre in Willingdon Island. The proposal was cleared in a meeting of the Cochin port’s board of trustees in March.

The international tea trade centre project was proposed by Cochin Port Trust as part of the plan for optimum utilisation of land in Willingdon island. The port management had earlier submitted the proposal to the union ministry of commerce.

The port management aims to turn Willingdon Island into a major hub for tea trade by bringing all the trade-related activities under one roof, along the same line as the Dubai Tea Trading Centre, where 10 million kg of tea is traded annually.

“As of now, the tea trading activities at the Willingdon Island are scattered at several locations. Bringing them together will give a new impetus and image to Willingdon Island as a tea trading hub with Kerala accounting for a substantial quantity of tea annually,” said the port authorities.

There are six brokers and 192 buyers involved in the tea trading activities.
The Commerce Ministry has expressed its willingness to provide 50 per cent subsidy under the ASIDE (Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development and Exports) scheme.

[Malayaali]

ICTT exports gain momentum

Showing signs of growth for the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), Vallarpadom, shipping companies are routing their export cargo via Kochi.

In line with the trend, a train carrying empty containers from the ICTT, Vallarpadam, left for Bangalore on Friday. The containers will be sent back after they are loaded with cargo at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Bangalore, said sources in the DP World, which operates the terminal.

“A full rake (90 TEU) was sent by shipping major CMA CGM which operates mainline services to Europe and Africa via Kochi. The stuffed containers are expected to be back for shipping in a few days,” said DP World officials.

“Till now, no shipping company was interested to route cargo via Kochi. All of them were focusing on ports outside Kerala, especially the Chennai Port. Cargo from Bangalore used to be sent to Chennai. The new development is a positive indication that shipping companies are interested to tap the potential of ICTT,” said a senior official of the Dubai Port World. At present, four trains conduct services every week connecting the Bangalore ICD with the ICTT. The existing train services between the ICTT and other ICDs are managed by the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR). “The flow of cargo from Bangalore ICD was nominal when the ICTT was commissioned in February this year. It was around just 200-300 TEUs per month then. Since then, there has been considerable growth in the flow of cargo during the past six months. By July-August in 2011, the volume of cargo went up to around 800 TEUs per month,” sources said.

Gherkins, garments, granite and machinery constitute a major chunk of consignment from the Bangalore ICD.

[Malayaali]

Originally Posted by Malayaali

RCI’s Voyager of the Seas to visit Goa and Kochi this week

Voyager of the Seas in Kochi

To Penang from Kochi with 2500 passengers

cc: Mathrubhumi

[Malayaali]

Cruise season closes on a high note

'Voyager of the Seas', a luxury cruise liner that called at the Kochi port on Sunday.

The luxury cruise season closed with a bang for Kochi on Sunday with the departure of MV Voyager of the Seas, a Bahamas flag vessel that arrived here with 2,929 passengers and 1,230 crew members.

The vessel departed for Penang late on Sunday afternoon, having arrived here from Goa.

The cruise season closes on a high for Kochi, which is emerging as a major destination for the more important luxury cruise operators across the world. The port here received more than 40 luxury liners this season and the next season is expected to be even better, cruise industry sources said.

According to one of the agents operating out of Kochi, 45 cruise liners have already scheduled their calls at Kochi, beginning October 2012.

MV Voyager of the Seas is the largest liner to have called at the Kochi port this season in terms of the number of passengers in it, though in terms of size, MV Queen Mary was the largest.

Cochin Port Trust sources had indicated that the new cruise tourism handling facility would be ready for commissioning in a couple of months. Once the facility is ready, the movement of tourists arriving on luxury liners will be even smoother than now with all the facilities coming under one roof.

Kochi is among the ports identified by the Union Ministry of Shipping for improving cruise handling facilities, and the Ministry has assured that disembarkation facilities at Kochi, Chennai, New Mangalore, Mumbai and Mormugao ports meet international standards currently. New infrastructure like escalators, aero bridges, customs and immigration desks, baggage scanning, food courts, gaming zones and passport reading machines are also being established at these ports.

[rejithcvcv]

Bangalore: Dubai-based port operator DP World Pvt. Ltd’s plan to bring bigger ships to India’s first international container transshipment terminal (ICTT) that it runs at Vallarpadam in Cochin port will be delayed by at least two years after the dredging contractor Mercator Ltd stopped work last week on deepening the channel.

On Friday, Union government-controlled Cochin port served a notice to Mercator giving the Mumbai-based firm 14 days to resume work. “If they don’t start work within 14 days, we will have to take a decision to terminate the contract with Mercator for non-performance,” said G.P. Rai, chief engineer of Cochin port.

“We have been dredging and dredging but silt keeps on coming; there doesn’t seem to be any end to it. What can we do about it,” said a spokesperson for Mercator.

If Cochin terminates Mercator’s contract, it will have to find another contractor to complete the rest of the work. But the port’s options are limited with even the state-run Dredging Corp. of India Ltd facing a shortage of dredgers to take up work. Dredgers are specialized ships that are used to deepen the channels of ports and harbours.

A container trans-shipment terminal such as the one developed at Vallarpadam acts like a hub, into which smaller feeder vessels bring in cargo which then gets loaded onto larger ships and are taken to final destinations.

Larger vessels bring about economies of scale, and lower cost of operations for the shipping lines, which then translates into lower freight rates.

Because of depth restrictions, bigger container ships cannot call directly at many of India’s ports that handle container cargo.

The Vallarpadam ICTT was designed to cut India’s dependence on neighbouring hub ports such as Colombo in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Salalah and Jebel Ali in Dubai, Tanjung Pelepas and Port Klang in Malaysia to send and receive container cargo, thus saving time and costs for exporters and importers. The facility with a capacity to handle one million standard containers a year was opened in February 2011. It loaded 337,053 standard containers in the year ended 31 March.

“In today’s shipping market, where freight rates have fallen by as much as 45% over the last three years, the only way to attract a mainline service is to make it conducive for larger ships to call at the ICTT,” said a spokesman for the Container Shipping Lines Association, an industry lobby. “But if you don’t give a good draft (depth), there is no point in inviting bigger container ships to start services from ICTT.”

Cochin port is contractually bound to give a depth of 16 metres to DP World to help the firm bring bigger ships to the ICTT.

The Rs. 525 crore channel deepening work, funded entirely by the government, was scheduled to be completed by October 2010.

On 1 April 2011, the port cancelled the dredging contract originally given to Gujarat-based Jaisu Shipping Co. Pvt. Ltd in 2008 after the firm slipped on the completion schedule even after being given repeated extensions and then abandoned work.

Cochin then hired Mercator on 8 May 2011 to undertake the balance work that entailed removing some 2 million cubic metres of silt and sand from the ocean bed at a cost of Rs. 60.8 crore. Mercator was given four months (till 7 September 2011) to complete the work, but was granted an extension of eight months to finish the task.

Cochin port says that Mercator could not complete half of the targeted work even a year after it started. Mercator has contested this claim. “We have already done 3-4 times that quantity (of 2 million cubic metres). We have spent more than the contract value already,” the Mercator spokesperson said.

“They may say anything; but according to our mode of measurement, Mercator has done 1.1 million cubic metres only,” said Cochin port’s Rai.

“Cochin port is prone to heavy siltation and requires dredging throughout the year to maintain its depth,” said an executive at a Bangalore-based dredging consultant. “If the dredging is stopped, silt will start accumulating which will have an impact on the ships calling at ICTT,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Without a dredging contractor, the depth cannot be maintained at ICTT, posing a danger to the navigation of container ships, he said.

DP World declined to comment.


source:http://www.livemint.com/2012/05/2022...it-as-dre.html

[prakmrao]

Mercator or any dredging contractor will not be able to complete the dredging in the Berth pocket at ICTT due to the continuous silting. There are many research papers available online on this subject. No foreign companies will quote for this job on unit rate basis. They will quote only on Daily Rate basis. But Indian Contractors only look at Bill of Quantities, quote unreasonably low rates and then land in trouble.

Cochin Port may have to study and construct breakwaters (which will have impacts elsewhere) to avoid excessive silting. Any amount spent on dredging is waste till then.

Originally Posted by rejithcvcv

Bangalore: Dubai-based port operator DP World Pvt. Ltd’s plan to bring bigger ships to India’s first international container transshipment terminal (ICTT) that it runs at Vallarpadam in Cochin port will be delayed by at least two years after the dredging contractor Mercator Ltd stopped work last week on deepening the channel.

On Friday, Union government-controlled Cochin port served a notice to Mercator giving the Mumbai-based firm 14 days to resume work. “If they don’t start work within 14 days, we will have to take a decision to terminate the contract with Mercator for non-performance,” said G.P. Rai, chief engineer of Cochin port.

“We have been dredging and dredging but silt keeps on coming; there doesn’t seem to be any end to it. What can we do about it,” said a spokesperson for Mercator.

If Cochin terminates Mercator’s contract, it will have to find another contractor to complete the rest of the work. But the port’s options are limited with even the state-run Dredging Corp. of India Ltd facing a shortage of dredgers to take up work. Dredgers are specialized ships that are used to deepen the channels of ports and harbours.

A container trans-shipment terminal such as the one developed at Vallarpadam acts like a hub, into which smaller feeder vessels bring in cargo which then gets loaded onto larger ships and are taken to final destinations.

Larger vessels bring about economies of scale, and lower cost of operations for the shipping lines, which then translates into lower freight rates.

Because of depth restrictions, bigger container ships cannot call directly at many of India’s ports that handle container cargo.

The Vallarpadam ICTT was designed to cut India’s dependence on neighbouring hub ports such as Colombo in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Salalah and Jebel Ali in Dubai, Tanjung Pelepas and Port Klang in Malaysia to send and receive container cargo, thus saving time and costs for exporters and importers. The facility with a capacity to handle one million standard containers a year was opened in February 2011. It loaded 337,053 standard containers in the year ended 31 March.

“In today’s shipping market, where freight rates have fallen by as much as 45% over the last three years, the only way to attract a mainline service is to make it conducive for larger ships to call at the ICTT,” said a spokesman for the Container Shipping Lines Association, an industry lobby. “But if you don’t give a good draft (depth), there is no point in inviting bigger container ships to start services from ICTT.”

Cochin port is contractually bound to give a depth of 16 metres to DP World to help the firm bring bigger ships to the ICTT.

The Rs. 525 crore channel deepening work, funded entirely by the government, was scheduled to be completed by October 2010.

On 1 April 2011, the port cancelled the dredging contract originally given to Gujarat-based Jaisu Shipping Co. Pvt. Ltd in 2008 after the firm slipped on the completion schedule even after being given repeated extensions and then abandoned work.

Cochin then hired Mercator on 8 May 2011 to undertake the balance work that entailed removing some 2 million cubic metres of silt and sand from the ocean bed at a cost of Rs. 60.8 crore. Mercator was given four months (till 7 September 2011) to complete the work, but was granted an extension of eight months to finish the task.

Cochin port says that Mercator could not complete half of the targeted work even a year after it started. Mercator has contested this claim. “We have already done 3-4 times that quantity (of 2 million cubic metres). We have spent more than the contract value already,” the Mercator spokesperson said.

“They may say anything; but according to our mode of measurement, Mercator has done 1.1 million cubic metres only,” said Cochin port’s Rai.

“Cochin port is prone to heavy siltation and requires dredging throughout the year to maintain its depth,” said an executive at a Bangalore-based dredging consultant. “If the dredging is stopped, silt will start accumulating which will have an impact on the ships calling at ICTT,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Without a dredging contractor, the depth cannot be maintained at ICTT, posing a danger to the navigation of container ships, he said.

DP World declined to comment.


source:http://www.livemint.com/2012/05/2022...it-as-dre.html

[Malayaali]

Ray of hope for Kochi terminal

The Union government has streamlined the transshipment clearance procedures, which is expected to make a big difference in the country’s first International Container Transshipment Terminal at Vallarpadam here.

The terminal has been utilizing just 33 per cent of its capacity owing mainly to lack of proper procedures and failure to relax the cabotage law that does not allow shipment by foreign flag vessels between domestic ports.

Owing to lack of clarity in the clearance norms, a vessel with 60 containers had to wait for long to get customs clearance.

The order of the revenue department of the Union finance ministry issued two days ago brings the clearance norms in accordance with international norms.

As per this, movement of foreign to foreign containers by sea and domestic to foreign by sea and foreign to domestic by sea would be under the SEZ customs while domestic to foreign by road or rail to sea and foreign to domestic by sea to road and rail will be under the revenue department customs authorities.

Earlier, there was a row over the role of the revenue department customs at the special economic zone after red sanders meant for illegal export were seized on the terminal premises.

According to top Cochin port officials, the present move would make things simple for the trade and help boost container movement from the terminal.

While the total movement of containers was just 3,37,053 TEUs during the fiscal ended March 31, it was just 33 per cent of the terminal capacity.

During the first 20 days of this month, there has been an 18 per cent drop in container movement compared to the same period last year.

“For the port which has been struggling financially, revenue through container movement via the terminal was the only solution,” an official said.

[mohammedirshad06]

Originally Posted by prakmrao

Mercator or any dredging contractor will not be able to complete the dredging in the Berth pocket at ICTT due to the continuous silting. There are many research papers available online on this subject. No foreign companies will quote for this job on unit rate basis. They will quote only on Daily Rate basis. But Indian Contractors only look at Bill of Quantities, quote unreasonably low rates and then land in trouble.

Cochin Port may have to study and construct breakwaters (which will have impacts elsewhere) to avoid excessive silting. Any amount spent on dredging is waste till then.

Well, I don't think this report is true, as till now Livemint is one media that always wish to give negative news about ICTT.... Perhaps someone from rival ports might be working in the media, to continously protray in negative news....

CPT is a Govt of India establishment. The documents and parameters fixed by CPT are official govt records and hence if this company haven't completed required task, its official. The company is bound to prove otherwise, which haven't been happening. So there should be some sort of conspiracy behind these activities to protray the port in bad limelight and ensure ICTT getting affected.

In meantime, Iam too wondering, why CPT is not considering a Breakwater? With this much amount of dredged material coming out, CPT should consider creating another island off-Fort Kochi with a Break water extension..... The returns of commercial sale of this island, would help CPT to recover its cost, as done in past by creation of W.island.....

[bijuarr]

Railways eyes to double freight traffic in state


KOCHI: Railway board engineer (Electrical, Signalling and Telecom) Khul Bhushan said that the Thiruvananthapuram division has plans to double the inflow of freight traffic in the state. Ernakulam will be developed as the hub of freight traffic in the state. This will be achieved by increasing the cargo traffic to Vallarpadom international container transshipment terminal, he said.

Bhushan was speaking to reporters here prior to his visit to the Vallarpadam terminal and the Kochi port on Sunday.

Thiruvananthapuram division has immense potential for income generation through the freight traffic to Kochi. On every `123 spent by Thiruvananthapuram division, it is earning only `100. The only way to increase the funds of the division is to focus on additional sources of income,” he said.

Speaking on the alleged closure of the goods care centre at the Ernakulam marshalling yard, the Divisional Railway Manager said that no such move is being undertaken by the Railways. “With plans to increase the inflow of freight traffic, the goods shed is of utmost importance to the division. The facilities for the maintenance and repair for freight trains will be developed at the goods shed. This will help increase the revenue,” he added.


http://ibnlive.in.com/news/railways-...27-60-116.html

[Prasanth_KCV]

Originally Posted by mohammedirshad06

Well, I don't think this report is true, as till now Livemint is one media that always wish to give negative news about ICTT.... Perhaps someone from rival ports might be working in the media, to continously protray in negative news....

CPT is a Govt of India establishment. The documents and parameters fixed by CPT are official govt records and hence if this company haven't completed required task, its official. The company is bound to prove otherwise, which haven't been happening. So there should be some sort of conspiracy behind these activities to protray the port in bad limelight and ensure ICTT getting affected.

In meantime, Iam too wondering, why CPT is not considering a Breakwater? With this much amount of dredged material coming out, CPT should consider creating another island off-Fort Kochi with a Break water extension..... The returns of commercial sale of this island, would help CPT to recover its cost, as done in past by creation of W.island.....

CPT already developed an island off Fort Kochi with the dredged materials from Vallarpadam, Ernakulam and Mattanchery.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=9.9745989&...11&l=0&m=s&v=9

[mohammedirshad06]

Originally Posted by Prasanth_KCV

CPT already developed an island off Fort Kochi with the dredged materials from Vallarpadam, Ernakulam and Mattanchery warf.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=9.9745989&...11&l=0&m=s&v=9

I know about it. Its not a deliberate attempt to create such. Rather continuous dumping has created the area shallower and island is all set to break out from sea. Its called currently as Project Rainbow Island by CPT, though its commercialization may take decades. The primary challenge, its nearly 20 Kms off Fort Kochi, which means a sea bridge would be required connecting to mainland. Naturally it would be prohibitive expensive....

I was talking about a new island very close to Fort Kochi, so that it requires no major sea bridge. The island can converted into breakwater strip and fully commercialized, just like Lulu Island Breakwaters helped Abu Dhabi to get an all weather port along with commercialization revenues from the Island....

[prakmrao]

Coming back ICTT, nothing is possible now as the monsoon has begun. There is no point in retaining or penalising Mercator.

CPT and DP World shall jointly immediately hire an international or local real dredging consultants/expert under supervision of CWPRS, Pune to examine all available data and recommend action for post monsoon season.

DCI's dredgers at site for maintenance dredging can be used for balance dredging.

[psanthosh]

Kochi, May 25: Kochi Port may appoint a third contractor to complete the dredging work at Vallarpadam terminal to achieve the 16 meter draft.

The project was initially awarded to the Kandla-based Jaisu Shipping at a cost of Rs 525 crore.

Since it could not complete the work, despite extended deadlines, the port management had terminated the contract in April 2011.

Jaisu Shipping had completed 96 per cent of the work.

To carry out the remaining four per cent work, the job was entrusted to another dredging company, Mercator Line Ltd, in May 2011.

The work involved removing about two million cubic metres of silt from the ICTT berth basin at a cost of Rs 60 crore.

The company was contractually bound to complete the work within four months before September 2011. However, despite giving extensions of nearly eight months, the company could not complete the work.

The port management has now put Mercator on notice giving them a deadline to complete the work failing which the contract would be terminated.

According to sources, the port management is now considering other options including asking Dredging Corporation of India, which already has the maintenance dredging contract with the port, to complete the remaining portion along with the maintenance.

Being a riverine port, it requires regular maintenance dredging to maintain the depth, the sources said.

It is pointed out that the port is spending heavily for annual maintenance dredging, which is a drag on its resources.

The average dredging cost of 10 major ports in the country is less than seven per cent of their operating costs whereas the same is 38 per cent in the case of Kolkata Port and 28 per cent in the case of Kochi Port.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle3456355.ece