Around ten dredgers can be expected to be working on the Haldia channel by the end of December this year.
With three dredgers working on the channel now Haldia port will get one dredger from Vizag soon. It received one from Paradeep on October 23.
Two more dredgers could be expected including one from the Sethusamundram Shipping Canal Project(SSCP) within a month's time. "One of the more efficient dredgers, dredger number 12 has now gone for reapir at the dry-docks will join in December. Our officers are tracking the developements closely. This apart, plans are on for chartering two dredgers through Transchart, the shipping ministry outfit", said A K Chanda, chairman, Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT). A KoPT team had visited the coastal city of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu this week for spot inspection of a dredger that could be chartered.
"More such inspections are lined up based on the responses received to the expressions of interest floated by Transchart.", Chanda said while declining to give out further details.
Highlighting the reasons for a loss of depth in the channel, the chairman explained that extension of the tail of the Nayachara island was affecting the depth at Auckland bar. The Auckland bar earlier required only 10 per cent of dredging while the bulk of the dredging activity was centered around Jellingham bar as it used to be the governing bar deciding the ruling depth of the entire channel. Under current circumstances, Auckland was drawing more than 50 per cent of the dredging activity. To counter the falling depth and in a strive to maintain a healthy draft in the channel, KoPT had reduced the under-keel clearance by 0.1 meter earlier and has further brought it down by 0.2 meter on October 4.
The under keel clearance or the clearance from the ships keel to the bottom of the shipping channel is now at 0.9 meters.