Marg to rope in foreign firm for dredging at Karaikal Port

Posted: Saturday, Feb 10, 2007 at 0118 hrs IST
Updated: Saturday, Feb 10, 2007 at 0118 hrs IST

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Chennai, Feb 9 : Chennai-based Marg Constructions Ltd plans to rope in an international organisation to do dredging works at its proposed Karaikal Port. The company is in the process of putting in place all the technical aspects with the help of its advisor L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers Ltd before calling for bids. Talking to FE, Brij Bhushan, chief financial officer (CFO) of the company, said, “L&T Ramboll is assisting us in technical part for dredging works. Once that is done, we will scout for international companies for the dredging works. We are going in for international companies as they are much more skilled and there are not many big domestic players for dredging works. The entire process will take about two months for completion.”

He added that the financial closure for the port project was achieved recently. The debt component of the project is Rs 302 crore, while the equity component is about Rs 116 crore. The company has already put in about 50% of the equity in the project. The project is supposed to commence within 24 months of the financial closure. “We are targeting to complete the first phase of the project by October 2008. The port being developed on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis will have six berths to handle bulk cargo and containers. In the first phase, two berths will be ready and the port will be equipped to handle about 4 million tonne of cargo per annum,” he added. The Karaikal Port would be a viable proposition as it would be able to cater to the requirement of the industrial belts of both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Companies which would be using the port can make a straight saving on the cost of transportation. The port would focus on cement, coal, textile, etc. According to estimates, nearly 4.71 million tonne of coal, 42,600 TEUs of container cargo and 0.45 mt of non container cargo got imported through the Chennai and Tuticorin ports in 2005-06. This apart, nearly 1,03,900 TEUs of container cargo and 0.45 mt of non container cargo got exported during 2005-06. The company expects a reasonable amount of cargo to get shifted to the proposed port once it is ready as there is congestion at both the ports and also there is growing demand from the industry, he said. The port would be equipped with latest technology so the downtime would also get...

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