JNPT Chairman Calls for Dredging (India)

All ports in the country should be dredged to a minimum depth of 14 metres, stated Luxman Radhakrishnan, chairman of Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

Radhakrishnan said: “Because of the inability of our ports to handle larger and huge ships, the country has to lose out Rs1,600 crore annually to foreign ports. As such, all the ports in the country must be dredged to a minimum depth of 14 metres while the hub ports must be dredged to 17 metres depth.”

In fact, some Indian ports are unable to handle bigger ships, and because of this problem the country is losing a lot of cash annually, reports dnaindia.com.

“The sovereign authority has to fund capital dredging. Without its support, individual ports are not in position to carry out the process,” he said.

A possible way to secure the necessary money for these projects could be the public private participation (PPP) model, concluded the chairman.

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Dredging Today Staff, November 2, 2012