Dredger-16 finally arrived at the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) from Sethusamudram on Monday. The dredger will be used to fight the dredging and draught problem at the HDC. The present available draught in Haldia is around 7.10 metres.
The Kolkata Port Trust (KopT), at present, has five dredgers. With the arrival of the Dredger-16, the fleet of six dredgers would be able to combat the problems faced by the HDC, said AK Bagchi, director-marine, KoPT.
Dredger-14, which is being repaired in Visakhapatnam, will join the fleet in Haldia by November-end. ?So, altogether seven dredgers will be in operation at the Haldia dock channel,? Bagchi said here at a press conference.
Though KoPT chairman Anup Chanda had earlier said that 10 dredgers would be deployed by December in the Haldia shipping channel hit by major draught constraint, the Haldia Dock Officers? Forum specifically wanted Dredger-16. The forum had even lobbied with the shipping ministry for the dredger, which has finally arrived. The HDC, on Monday, handled 1,20,000 tonne of cargo and loading and unloading of 17 ships took place, according to sources.
The HDC plans to handle more than 44 million tonne of cargo this fiscal compared with around 43.58m tonne in the previous fiscal.