Govt takes EPC route for awarding contracts in waterways projects

The government is replicating the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model of awarding highway contracts in waterways projects now. Companies like Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Adani and Afcons have evinced interest in bidding for waterway contracts ranging from establishing cargo terminals and jetties to dredging activity.

“We are creating a modal choice for a cargo owner. The most cost-effective is waterways. And to enable that, we have to create the infrastructure — build terminals, dredging or fairway development etc,” Pravir Pandey, vice-chairman, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), told Business Standard.
 

The IWAI is the implementing agency for the Centre’s Jal Marg Vikas Project, a scheme approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in January. The project involves capacity augmentation of navigation on National Waterway-1 (NW-1) at a cost of Rs 53.69 billion with the technical assistance and investment support of the World Bank, to be completed by March 23.

According to international best practice, the agency issues assured depth dredging contracts. Instead of a shore location, the IWAI will select and award water stretches like it’s in the case of highways. Typically, a 100-150km stretch will be given out as contracts after a bidding procedure.

Waterway development has to be executed in such a manner that a 2,000-tonne vessel can pass through it. The government is of the view that EPC is a cost-effective model. “We need a 3-metre depth (it allows 2,000-tonne vessel to pass), with 45-metre bottom width. We are targeting only 2,000-tonne vessel because achieving more than 3-metre depth is a very expensive proposition,” Pandey added.

A 2000-tonne vessel can accommodate cargo equivalent to 125-130 trucks of 16-tonne capacity each or 40 railway wagons. The contractor does the detail designing of the whole project and gets it vetted through a consultant approved by the IWAI.

Earlier, it used to be BOQ (bill of quantities) in India – an itemised list of materials, parts, and labour (with their costs) required to construct, maintain, or repair a specific structure. Under those contracts it was difficult for the government to find out whether the contractor was doing the dredging work properly or not. Now under the EPC move, the project will be funded by the government and the contractor will have to meet certain set specifications and parameters. Pandey said work on multi-modal terminals in Varanasi, Haldia and Sahibganj terminals was in full swing and these were expected to be ready for operations by March 2022. The progress of work in Varanasi was 58 per cent, in Sahibganj it was 38 per cent, and in Haldia, the work had just begun, he said.

 

The 140-km stretch of the navigational lock from Farakka to Kahalgaon, contract for which has been given to Adani Ports, is also progressing well with 34 per cent work already completed.

The Sahibganj navigational lock being built by L&T, Varanasi being built by Shapoorji Palloonji group company Afcons and Haldia terminal by ITD Cementation.
 

Emphasising on the challenging task of river navigation, he said the rivers had their own morphology and they have their own hydraulics. For instance, the Ganga river on  average is 1.5-2 km broad but in some stretches, it is 5 km broad.

 “But we cannot go meandering in the river, we do hydrographic surveys and we find the channel,” Pandey said, adding they were not disturbing the river bed and that 3 metres were basically de-silting.

According to official estimates, around 54 million tonnes of silt comes out from river Ganga every year and 20 per cent of it remains in the bed and causes problems.