JNPT expects govt nod for dredging project in 60 days

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is expecting to get government approvals for its Rs 1,000-crore channel deepening project in two months.

However, it would take another 24-30 months to complete the dredging process, which will enable the port to play host to bigger vessels.

"We have submitted the proposal for deepening of the channel to the government and are expecting to get approval in the next 60 days. The dredging work will commence immediately after getting the approval, while the deepening will be completed in the next one to one-and-a-half years," a company official said.

The present depth of the shipping channel is around 11.5 metres during low tides and 12.5 metres during high tides. According to the proposal submitted to the government, the JNPT intends to deepen the channel by another two metres.

Once the depth of the channel is increased, it will help in bringing in bigger vessels "" of around 6,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity "" to the port.

In 2007, the port handled 3.6 million TEUs and it was expecting to increase the capacity to 4 million TEUs this year. At present the JNPT handles over 60 per cent of the country's container traffic. However, after the dredging, the port would be able to handle over 5 million TEUs per year, the port officials said.

Further in the second phase, the channel would be dredged up to 16 metres, under a project costing Rs 1,200 crore. However, this is still under the planning stage.

The JNPT had sought approvals for deepening and widening the channel earlier in 2004. In 2005, it had appointed New Delhi-based management and environmental consultant Scott Wilson as the project management consultant (PMC).

While the project had earlier received Public Investment Board (PIB) clearance, an approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) was still awaited.