Paradip Deepening and Maintenance Underway

In June dredging to deepen India’s Paradip Port entrance channel began as Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) brought in the 12900 kW cutterhead dredge Aquarius for the job.

The project will deepen the channel from 12.8 meters (42 feet) to 17.1 meters (56 feet) and allow the port to handle vessels of 125000 DWT.

The project consists of removing 15 million cubic meters (19.6 million cubic yards) of material – 11.3 million cubic meters in the outer channel and another 3.7 million cubic meters (five million cubic yards) from the inner harbor and turning basin.

The Rs. 253.36 crore project is expected to be completed in June 2009.

DCI also has the contract for maintenance dredging in the port deploying 6500-cubic-meter hopper Dredge VIII on June 11 and the 4500-cubic- meter Dredge IX on July 3. After arrival in the port both dredges stopped work due to equipment failure.

Dredge IX resumed operation on August 27 after on-site repairs and Dredge VIII was returned to DCI’s yard in Viaskhapatnam for repair.

Every year 1.6 million cubic meters of maintenance material is removed by September or October and a million cubic meters is removed from a sand trap in December and January.

Paradip Port is a major Port of India and is the main import and export harbor in the eastern part of the country. It is 210 nautical miles south of Calcutta and 260 nautical miles north of Visakhapatnam in the state of Orissa. The Port serves the hinterland of the States of Oriss Jharkhand Chandigarh West Bengal Madhya Pradesh Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The area has a vast mineral trade much of which is exported through Paradip.