NEW DELHI: In a move that will help the central government owned ports to cut their expenditure for dredging, which is around Rs 1,000 crore annually, the shipping ministry has decided to include a provision in the bids to monetise the dredged material. The contractors will have to quote the cost discounting for the dredged materials it would sell.
This comes along with the government’s move to tighten the monitoring regime for dredging by launching the online monitoring portal, Sagar Samridhi.
Union shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal said this will bring transparency and eliminate any scope of cheating by dredging contractors. The new system will automatically assess the volume of extracted materials from sea beds and rivers. The minister said this will put an end to arbitration in contracts.
The ports and inland waterway authorities go for dredging to ensure that enough depth is maintained in water bodies for navigation of ships and vessels carrying load. There have been instances of the contractors not maintaining the required draft as per the contract since dredging is an underwater activity.
Union shipping secretary, Sudhansh Pant said this move will also help the government to generate wealth from dredged material.
“It has now been instructed that the dredging contractors will be responsible for selling the extracted material. This will lower the net dredging cost. If the dredged material is of good quality, these can be used for construction works,” he added
Speaking at the last Civil Services Day function, Pant had said that the programme is in line with the concept of waste to wealth.
“A lot of dredging works are undertaken at ports and waterways. All the dredged materials were going absolutely waste. So, guidelines have been issued to ensure that even from that waste we could generate wealth. It has happened across many dams in the country, even in Rajasthan where I have an idea that just by dredging one dam, instead of the government paying to the dredging company, the dredging company has paid to the government because of the dredged material could be sold in the market,” he said.
This comes along with the government’s move to tighten the monitoring regime for dredging by launching the online monitoring portal, Sagar Samridhi.
Union shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal said this will bring transparency and eliminate any scope of cheating by dredging contractors. The new system will automatically assess the volume of extracted materials from sea beds and rivers. The minister said this will put an end to arbitration in contracts.
The ports and inland waterway authorities go for dredging to ensure that enough depth is maintained in water bodies for navigation of ships and vessels carrying load. There have been instances of the contractors not maintaining the required draft as per the contract since dredging is an underwater activity.
Union shipping secretary, Sudhansh Pant said this move will also help the government to generate wealth from dredged material.
“It has now been instructed that the dredging contractors will be responsible for selling the extracted material. This will lower the net dredging cost. If the dredged material is of good quality, these can be used for construction works,” he added
Speaking at the last Civil Services Day function, Pant had said that the programme is in line with the concept of waste to wealth.
“A lot of dredging works are undertaken at ports and waterways. All the dredged materials were going absolutely waste. So, guidelines have been issued to ensure that even from that waste we could generate wealth. It has happened across many dams in the country, even in Rajasthan where I have an idea that just by dredging one dam, instead of the government paying to the dredging company, the dredging company has paid to the government because of the dredged material could be sold in the market,” he said.