JNPT picks Scott Wilson as advisor for channel dredging

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has appointed New Delhi-based management and environmental consultant, Scott Wilson, as project management consultant (PMC) for its ambitious Rs 800 crore channel deepening and widening programme.

"Scott Wilson will be advising the port on global tenders and bidding process for the Rs 800 crore channel dredging programme. The dredging work is likely to be completed by December 2008," said JNPT chairman Ravi Bhushan Budhiraja to Business Standard.

Currently, JNPT could handle vessels having draught upto 12.5 metres only making use of tidal window. But with its channel dredged upto 14 metres, this major port could handle larger vessels of 6,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity.

Earlier, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the port's channel dredging project involving a direct capital cost of Rs 670 crore, a financing cost of Rs 58 crore and Rs 71 crore as contingency expenses.

Budhiraja said a major portion of project cost would be met through internal resources and remaining would be raised from the market.

"The bidding process followed by tendering will take six months and we are expecting to award the project by mid-2006. The dredging work is likely to be completed in 27 months," he said.

"Under the first phase, the channel will be dredged upto 14 metres from the current 12.5 metres, and it will further be dredged upto 16 metres in the second phase. The second phase with an estimated cost of Rs 1,210 crore is still under the planning stage," a senior port official said.

To accomodate larger and direct mother vessels, it is also being planned to widen the existing main harbour channel and JN Port approach channel to 370 metres for straight reach and 450 metres at bend and at port berths, they said.

Meanwhile, the Union finance ministry is likely to reschedule Rs 727 crore dues from the port to the government.

JN Port, which handles over 56 per cent of country's container traffic, had earlier requested the government to treat this amount as government's equity participation in its channel dredging project or lower the interest rate.

However, the government has refused equity participation in the project and asked the port to raise money on its own.

"Taking the importance of the dredging project, government is likely to lower the interest rate and will consider the extension of moratorium on the repayment," sources said.