Navigable depth falls at Jellingham, Haldia dock in further crisis

16 December 2011

biswabrata goswami
HALDIA, 16 DEC: The ongoing crisis at the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) has deepened further as the navigable depth at the governing bar of Jellingham has decreased and the number of dredgers working in the channel has come down to two from six.
In 2008, the HDC had faced the similar problem and both the state and Centre had to intervene. This time too, the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) authorities have taken up the matter with the Union minister of state for shipping, Mr Mukul Roy, and hope to put all the dredgers back into operation by December.
“The Haldia dock may face severe problem in the lean season, which starts in November, as the depth of water in the Hooghly river has gone down since August. This apart, only two dredgers are working in the river while four dredgers have been withdrawn,” a top Haldia port official said.
According to port officials, the water depth required by vessels to move on the Hooghly river has dropped to 3.8 metre at Jellingham Channel and 4.1 metre at Auckland Channel. The minimum levels required by these two key points in the river are five metre and 5.5 metre, respectively.
This has forced authorities at Kolkata port, under which the Haldia dock falls, to send emergency requests to the Dredging Corp of India Ltd (DCI) and the shipping ministry to arrange for more dredgers, the official added.
The present situation has led to apprehensions among port users about the situation that may arise in the months to come. The months between November and February are considered "lean" for transporting goods through river. The tidal flow also remains low during the period.
In 2008, the situation at HDC had been so bad that ships, even with loads far lesser than their capacity, weren't able to enter the port. With several industries, not only in West Bengal but many other states, depending on HDC for raw materials and fuel, any fall in water level at Jellingham would result in a crisis. A senior port official at Haldia said: “Some senior bureaucrats in the ministry of shipping are out to promote the upcoming private port at Dhamra in Orissa. So they are trying to make the Haldia port sick so that Haldia Port cargo of existing 32 million ton could be shifted to Dhamra.”
“The DCI has forcibly withdrawn the dredger from Haldia dock without taking necessary clearance from KoPT. Even a KoPT pilot was enforced to move with the dredger, which is a criminal offence,” the officer added.
Port officials claim that the situation could have been averted, had the KoPT management paid more attention to HDC instead of planning new projects. According to some officials, a lot of effort was wasted on making plans for a port at Sagar Islands. The authorities, however, are yet to select a site for the proposed project.