Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has inked an agreement with a Dutch company, IHC - Holland Dredgers bv, for construction and delivery of a trailer suction hopper dredger at a cost of 50.73 million euro.
Federal Minister of Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri and representatives of Dutch Embassy witnessed the ceremony here on Monday. The trailer suction hopper dredger will be capable of removing a mass of 6,000 cubic metres and will be equipped with the modern technology, called as 'Wild Dragon Drag Head'.
The drag head will have built-in adjustable cutting teeth and water jet nozzles, delivering more than 3,600 cubic metres per hour mass, and handle easily dislodging the hard compacted soil.
On this occasion, the Minister said that the KPT would get dredger after two years, and the port would pay the entire cost from its own resources.
The dredger would be operated by the company's own staff for one year, who would simultaneously train the KPT staff during this period, the Minister said, adding that this hi-tech dredging would be used for maintenance and capital dredging, saving precious foreign exchange for KPT each year.
The dredger would also meet the dredging needs for in future projects of deep container berths and cargo village, which require capital dredging of approximately 16 million cubic metres. Besides, this machine would be used by other ports as well, he said.
KPT would sign another agreement next week to purchase one more high profile dredging machine. The Port already has five dredgers of low capacity, engaged in routine/maintenance dredging.
Ghauri said that Pakistan's ports, including Gwadar, would be made as model ports for the world within the next couple of years.
"We are making the best use of our land bank to make the ports very attractive," he said.
The dredger will be built under rules of International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and IACS. The induction of state of the art dredgers will equip KPT to not only maintain its existing channel but also deepen the existing entrance channel.
As the new generation of container ships comes on the drawing board, Karachi Port takes the initiative of built the port to handle and cater fifth and sixth generation ships.
The development of deep draught berths needs modern ancillary crafts for dredging at Keamari Goryne. The berths shall be 18 metres deep, catering for over 350 metres long vessels.
The provision of 10 berths has been made in the KPT long-term plan. Setting up of satellite facility in the vicinity of the port, circumscribing all port requirements is a recent concept in the port operations internationally. About 1300 acres area is proposed for the Cargo Village project with individual areas catering for containers, general and bulk cargo, processing plants, customs and other related facilities.
It will also have 750 metres long quay wall at 14 metres depth to handle limited ship traffic directly at the village facility. It will also have direct access to M-10 and Lyari Expressway. The Phase-I of cargo village will comprise of an area of around 330 acres.
Dredging is a continuous process to keep the draught maintained in the port harbour to ensure safety of navigation in vessel traffic. That is why it is mandatory and all-time function.
To keep pace with the upgrade of various facilities, old crafts of KPT are being replaced. These include 1 BackHoe Dredger, 2 Hopper Barges, 1 Water Barge, 2 Tugs of 50-Ton Bollard Pull (Ex-Shelf). One Debris Collection Boat has already arrived at the port.
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