The race between foreign dredging majors such as Van Oord, Jan De Nul and Royal Boskalis for a project in Mumbai and Jawaharlal ports is likely to end soon.
Financial bids
Financial bids for the Rs 1,571-crore project to deepen and widen the Mumbai Harbour Channel and the JN Port channel can now be opened.
This follows the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure's (CCI) approval to the project here on Thursday, which is a mandatory requirement for awarding the project.
JN Port had already invited the financial bids from shortlisted players, and was waiting for the CCI approval.
The project, which is pending for over four years now, has to be completed within 25 months, including mobilisation period after awarding of work.
Channels to be widened
The Mumbai Harbour Channel and the JN Port Channel will be deepened and widened to handle vessels up to capacity of 6,000 twenty feet equivalent units (TEUs) and draught of up to 14 meters by using the tidal window.
The firms who had qualified to bid for this project include a consortium of Dredging International, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contracting, Jan De Nul and Royal Boskalis Westminster. All the bidders have received security approvals.
“The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure today approved the project of deepening and widening of Mumbai Harbour Channel and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Channel (Phase-I) of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at an estimated cost of Rs 1,571.60 crore,” said an official statement.
Costs involved
The cost includes a direct dredging cost of Rs 1,398.97 crore (including service tax at 10.3 per cent), Rs 42.07 crore towards other related items such as idle time charges of dredgers, navigational aids, administrative expenditure and preliminary expenses of executing agency, modification of vessel traffic management system and provision of environmental management plan, contingency of Rs 12.68 crore at one per cent interest during construction cost of Rs 117.88 crore.