Ports Ministry issues addendum to promote ‘Waste to Wealth’ in dredging sector

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has issued addendum to promote ‘Waste to Wealth’ in the dredging sector for major ports. This would make provision for use of dredging material in bidding process with necessary clearance from the authorities, a government release said on Friday.

The department announced dredging guidelines for major ports in 2021 to ascertain estimation of project cost, based on acceptable international standards by Major Port. The guidelines include latest technological systems on survey and investigations recommended for capital dredging projects.

The guidelines were meant to provide fair and equal opportunity for any new entrant to dredging industry as the same shall not be based either on minor ports survey organization (MPSO) Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), the former company was closed and the later majority shares were disinvested; Concepts of Assured depth contract, EPC mode contract, annuity model or hybrid annuity model needs to be considered as dredging option.

With this addendum to the previous Guidelines, the beneficial use of dredged material has to be adequately explored and accordingly the concept of ‘Waste to Wealth’ in the dredging sector has been highlighted, which is now being issued to the Major Ports, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), and Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), the release said.

The addendum to the dredging guidelines outlines the wide range of beneficial use of dredged material, including engineering use for construction purposes, and environmental enhancement. There is need for extensive study of the characteristics of the dredged soil with Geo technical data of the dredging area of the dredging project.

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal highlighted that the implementation of the dredging project with beneficial use of dredged material is expected to bring down the cost of the dredging. This would also ensure environment sustainability as per ‘Waste to Wealth’ and the mantra of 3R – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle given by our Prime, the minister said.

This addendum to the guidelines has also brought out the need for incorporating the data on type of soil and characteristics, approximate quantity of dredged material and disposal sites to the potential bidders in advance. This is subjected to environment condition for disposal of dredged material and the permission from the competent state authority.

The Dredging companies may undertake the disposal of the dredged material, while promoting the concept of Waste to Wealth, the release said.

Waste to wealth is a mission by the government to identify, develop and deploy technologies to treat waste to generate energy, recycle materials and extract worth.