Royal Boskalis Westminster has acquired a contract with port operator Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) for deepening and widening the port and access channel of Jawaharial Nehru Port (also known as Nhava Sheva) in Mumbai, India.
The contract has a total value of approximately EUR 175 million (USD213 million). The dredging work will commence in September 2012 and is expected to take two years to complete.
The expansion comprises the deepening and widening of the 33.5 kilometers' long access channel, the port basins and turning basins.
In total, approximately 67 million cubic meters of sand, silt, clay and rock will be removed. For this project, a jumbo and medium sized trailing suction hopper dredgers will be used in combination with a jumbo cutter suction dredger and a large backhoe.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port is the largest container port in the country, with an annual handling capacity of 4.3 million TEU. This volume represents more than 50 per cent of the total quantity of containers that are handled by Indian ports.
By deepening the port from the current 11.5 metres to over 14 metres, it will be possible to receive larger types of container vessels with deeper draughts. As a result, according to the port operator, the annual capacity will increase to approximately 10 million TEU.
Boskalis states their strategy is "designed to benefit from the key macro-economic drivers that fuel global demand in our selected markets: global trade, increasing energy consumption, population growth and the challenges of changing climate conditions."
Image source: Jaxer
