The Chinese vessel Zhenhua-10, carrying four ship-to-shore huge gantry cranes for the International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT), reached Vallarpadam terminal finally on Thursday. The vessel was able to anchor at the terminal as a 12.5 meter draft has been provided uniformly at the basin area of the terminal.
The Cochin Port Trust (CPT) had engaged two grab dredgers on a war footing for the last ten days to provide the required draft. The vessel Zhenhua-10 had been anchored in the outer basin of Kochi for the last three weeks for lack of required depth at the basin. This has delayed the completion and soft launch of the ICTT by around six weeks.
The berthing of the vessel was originally scheduled for June 24 and it had arrived promptly but was held up by a lack of the minimum 12.5 meter draft uniformly. CPT which engages Mumbai-based Jaisu Shipping Company for capital dredging of the channels and the basin area earlier promised DP World, the BOT contractors of the project, to provide the draft by July 7.
The port had arranged with the dredging contractor to provide for adequate depth to bring in the vessel carrying the cranes on schedule. However, although Jaisu Shipping had deployed as many as three dredgers of 14,300 cubic meter capacity, the required depth could not be achieved uniformly, because of presence of an unexpected hard patch of about 35 meters width and 300 meters length, parallel to the jetty. This very hard patch could not be broken by the suction dredgers employed.
Subsequently, a specialized mechanical dredger was mobilized from Mumbai and deployed for cutting and removing the hard patch. With a view to expedite the process, CPT has also engaged the port’s grab dredger GHD Nehru Satabdi. In May, the port had berthed two vessels carrying RTG cranes for the project, which required lesser draft.
