Posted on March 30, 2017
By Manoj Venunath, IHS Maritime 360
A consortium of Jan De Nul NV and Royal Boskalis Westminster NV is set to secure the contract for deepening and widening the channel of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India’s busiest container port.
The consortium quoted the lowest rate of about USD300 million for the work dubbed India’s biggest dredging work by value and the most challenging yet because of the presence of rock in the sea bed.
The lowest price bid submitted by the Jan De Nul-Royal Boskalis team and opened on 24 March, was 3.13% below the estimate of USD310 million approved by the Indian cabinet last week for the work aimed at helping container ships with a capacity of as much as 12,500 teu to dock.
JNPT currently has a depth of 14 m that enables container ships of 6,000 teu ships to call.
The Jan De Nul-Royal Boskalis team pipped compatriots and rivals Dredging International NV (alone) and Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contracting Co NV (alone) that had quoted on the tender.
“The Indian government should be complimented for prudent and fast clearance of this project of national importance,” a spokesman for the Indian shipping ministry said. The project has received all statutory and regulatory clearances including the key environment approval, security clearance of bidders and ratification from the Indian cabinet.
The work involves deepening the channel to 15 m from the existing 14 m, as well as widening the existing shipping channel from 370 m to 450 m for straight reach and extending the length from 33.5 km to 35.5 km.
The estimated quantity to be dredged is 35.03 million m³, including 1.73 million m³ of rock dredging. The dredged material comprises of marine clay mainly and weathered/sound amygdaloidal basalt rock.
“It’s a very challenging assignment. It’s direct dredging, drilling and blasting of huge rock spread, not an easy job at all,” an executive briefed on the project said.
The board of trustees of JNPT is expected to clear the Jan De Nul-Royal Boskalis bid by the end of the week, the executive said.
The tender results would mean that Royal Boskalis continues a big role in dredging works at JNPT over the past few years. Royal Boskalis Westminster undertook the work on deepening and widening of the JNPT channel to 14 m from the previous 11.5 m between 2012 and 2014.
Source: fairplay
