DCI to expand its fleet with three new dredgers

Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) will soon expand its fleet with three new dredgers, Daily Shipping Times reports.

According to the sources,  during the next two years, three trailer suction hopper dredgers will join the DCI’s dredging fleet, according to Chairman and Managing Director D.K Mohanty.

Mr. Mohanty stated: “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.”

DCI has not been able to procure any new dredging machinery in the last nine years, Parliamentary Standing Committee has pointed out in its latest report.

Of the 10 trailer suction dredgers that DCI owns, seven are over 20 years and the oldest is 37 years.

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

He said the  DCI was competing with the 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.

E-procurement : The CMD administered the pledge to the 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 e-procurement process. It will take sometime,” he said.