KOCHI: The Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) on Thursday signed an agreement with the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) to build India’s largest dredger in collaboration with IHC Holland. The contract for the project is billed as a major step under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
“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,” a release said here.
Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Marten van-den Berg, the Ambassador of Netherlands to India, were present on the occasion. Till now, all TSHD dredgers owned and operated by DCI were procured from foreign countries. “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,” said Minister Sonowal.
Madhu S Nair, CMD CSL, said that the Shipyard was happy to associate with DCI and IHC to engineer and build the largest dredger for the country. “We assure that we will deliver a world class dredger to the nation,” he said. The vessel of 127 m length and 28 me breadth is based on the globally acclaimed ‘Beagle’ platform of IHC. It will be customised to meet all Indian requirements.