Posted on March 6, 2017
It has been nearly 16 months since the cutter suction dredger was brought here with much fanfare for removing silt from the basin of the Azhikkal port here. The dredging work, however, remains a non-starter, despite assurances by Ports Department officials that the work will be started without further delay.
The dredger was brought here in October 2015 to increase the depth of the channel of the port. A year later dredger pipes required for discharging the dredged bottom sediments arrived, raising hopes that the dredging work would be started soon by Kerala State Maritime Development Corporation Ltd. (KSMDCL). According to officials in the Ports Department here the delay is caused by some ‘technical issues’ related to the starting of the work.
“All efforts are going on to start the dredging work in March,” Director of Ports Ajit Patil told The Hindu over the phone.
‘Shipping not hit’
Informing that the technical issues had been sorted out, he said that the delay in dredging had not affected shipping movement in the port. Denying that shipping movement in the port was affected by the lack of dredging, Mr. Patil said that shipping inquiry was coming in.
Sources in the Port here said that cutter suction dredger required lot of accessories unlike the trailer suction dredger. While the latter discharged the dredged silt into the sea, the former discharged it in a storage area protected by bund on the bank of the channel. The accessories arrived at the port only in January, they said. They also said that the dredging work would be completed in six months once it began. The cutter suction dredger could dredge 2,500 to 3,000 cubic metres of sediment a day, they said.
Dredging can increase the depth of the basin and the channel up to six metres. The average depth now is 3.5 metres. The officials said that the larger vessels could enter the port only if the depth of the channel and the basin was increased to six metres and more. The lack of periodical dredging in the basin had also added to the problem of siltation.
Source: The Hindu
