UK experts in city to bail out Haldia port

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Jayanta Gupta TNN

Kolkata: The internationally acclaimed HR Wallingford, a UK-based organisation involved with the development of the Bristol Deep Sea Container Terminal and a mega port facility on Kuwait’s Boubyan Island, has been engaged to study the Hooghly River and suggest measures to increase the draught in the navigation channel leading to the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC).
This is a measure taken to keep the port facility in the state viable for a further 15 to 20 years.
The eight-member team, comprising experts in river training, dredging, morphology and river modeling is expected to submit its report by the end of this year or the beginning of January 2013.
It will be on the basis of this report that the Centre will decide whether to release the nearly Rs 1,000 crore required for the long-awaited River Regulatory Measures (RRM). In 2010, WAPCOS, a public sector undertaking, had submitted a report on the RRM required to improve the draught at HDC. A study was also conducted by the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune.
“When we submitted the report to the Centre, officials desired another opinion from an international body. This was when HR Wallingford was engaged by WAPCOS to review the report and make further recommendations, if required. A work order was issued in August. Experts have already visited several parts of the river and sought records from us. Recently, a two-day meeting was also convened at CWPRS. Now, two experts have come to Kolkata to discuss matters with us. They met officials from the marine and hydraulic study department and the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) chairman,” an official said.
Richard Nicholas Bray, who is an expert on maintenance dredging and Tim Chesher from Wallingford also visited Haldia over the weekend and conducted inspections. On Thursday, the development advisor (ports) from the Planning Commission is expected to visit Kolkata and meet the two experts. This meeting is crucial as it is the Planning Commission that will need to give its consent before funds are released for dredging the Hooghly.
“The report is still not ready and they have sought data for the last 30-40 years from us. From what we have gathered, the experts believe that for a large estuary like the one that exists at the point where the Hooghly meets the Bay of Bengal, the key to tackling the crisis is to maintain alignment with nature. This is where the data will come in handy. It will tell the experts how we have tinkered with the river system over the years and the response that we got. The report will be based on our proposed projects at Sagar and Shalukkhali. Once the report is ready, we will propose short-term and long-term measures to the Centre,” the official added.
Given the condition of the navigation channel, Cape-size vessels can’t enter HDC with full loads. Some of the cargo has to be discharged at ports like Visakhapatnam or Paradip before the ships are in a position to enter HDC.