Three more trailer suction hopper dredgers will join the fleet of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) here in the next two years and there will be a marked improvement in the performance of the PSU, according to Chairman and Managing Director D.K Mohanty.

In an interview here on Monday he said DCI had suffered due to its aging fleet during the past financial year and the global economic slowdown had also contributed significantly. "We will get a new TSHD in December and another one in July-August next year and one more in the following year (2014). It will substantially improve our performance. It will also give us an opportunity to refurbish our old dredgers and improve our productivity. We are very positive on that front," he said.

He said the new dredgers, to be received in December, would be deployed on the Ramakrishna Beach here for beach nourishment. "We have been taking up the exercise annually. We are dredging and pumping 3 lakh cubic meters of sand to nourish the beach. The new dredgers coming from the Netherlands will be deployed for the purpose," he said.

He said the DCI was competing with private dredging companies and getting works on a competitive basis. "In the past we used to get works on a nomination basis, but now it is different. Except Haldia, where no one is ready to take up dredging, we are competing for all other works," Mohanty said.

E-procurement: Earlier in the day, the CMD administered the pledge to employees of the DCI on the occasion of the inauguration of Vigilance Awareness Week. He said reforms were being introduced in procurement in the PSUs and electronic procurement was being introduced to curb the scope for corruption. The DCI had also introduced e-procurement. "However, our vendors should also be ready with the infrastructure to participate in the e-procurement process. It will take sometime," he said.

DCI's Vigilance Officer S. Vasudeva Rao said e-procurement was by no means a panacea, but it would greatly mitigate corruption. It would give an equal and fair chance to all bidders and discretionary powers would be reduced. Collusive bidding could also be prevented, he added.

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