Moving towards self-reliance in all spheres including ship building, India is all set to build its largest dredger. Giving shape to this plan, the country’s leading ship building public sector undertaking, the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) on Thursday inked an agreement with the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) to build this vessel.
The project will be executed by CSL in collaboration with IHC Holland and the vessel will be 127 metres in length and 28 metres in breadth. Customised to meet all Indian requirements, it will be based on the globally acclaimed Beagle platform.
The Press release put on this stated: “The contract for the construction of the 12,000 m3 Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger is a culmination of the efforts of Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways to bring in ‘best-in-class’ global technology into India under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.”
During the signing of the agreement, the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Marten van-den Berg, the Ambassador of Netherlands to India, were present.
So far, all the TSHD dredgers which are owned and operated by DCI have been purchased from foreign countries.
Talking about this project, the Minister said: “Building a 12,000 m3 Dredger in India is a big step forward in our push for Aatmanirbharta. This will also be a big boost to the port-led development plan of the Government of India.”
CSL, Chairman and Managing Director, Madhu S Nair, expressing happiness to be associated with DCI and IHC to build India’s largest dredger remarked: “We assure that we will deliver a world class dredger to the nation.”
