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Dredging Corp in venture with Belgian company

Dredging Corp of India (DCI) is in talks with Belgium-based Dredging International for a joint venture, a company source said.

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Likely to source vessels for work at Paradip port

MUMBAI: Dredging Corp of India (DCI) is in talks with Belgium-based Dredging International for a joint venture, a company source said.

This joint venture will be used initially to source vessels for the dredging work at Paradip port, as that has an immediate requirement, the source added.

Dredging International is fourth largest in the world with a fleet of 27 dredgers with a capacity to dredge about 2,00,000 cubic metres in totality.

Capt S S Tripathi, chairman and managing director, DCI, refused to confirm the development. “We are talking to many companies for a joint venture but nothing has been finalised as of now,” he said.

DCI currently owns a fleet of 12 dredgers totalling a capacity of 80 million cubic metres per annum. The company charters additional dredgers from private companies to meet the growing demand marginally.

The need for DCI to opt for a joint venture also stems from the fact that even new dredgers are difficult to acquire as no Indian shipyard builds dredgers and all shipyards globally are booked till 2010-2011.

A senior DCI official said although Chinese shipyards have slot availability for 2008-2009, they do not participate in the tenders floated by DCI that being a government organisation has to take the tender route for all acquisitions.

The boom in global trade and increased container traffic have resulted in shipping companies acquiring larger ships and calls for deeper water channels to accommodate them. This requires substantial capital and maintenance dredging requirements.

To meet the increasing demand, the 12 major ports owned by the Union government have already lined up investments worth Rs 6,304 crore to deepen their channels over the next three to five years.

The Rs 2,427.4 crore Sethu Samudram Ship Channel Project Development, which requires 82.50 cubic metres of dredging adds to the opportunity. While development of private ports and expansion at existing private and state government-owned ports also necessitate getting more dredgers.

s_archana23@dnaindia.net

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