Govt launches online portal to monitor dredging projects real-time

ShipMin launches platform to save cost on Rs 1,000 crore dredging projects

The central government on Friday launched an online dredging monitoring system, called Sagar Samriddhi, in a bid to reduce time and cost of crucial dredging projects for Indian ports and river systems.

With India’s ambitions of deepening the maritime and waterways economy, dredging has come to the fore as a core requirement. As both inland waterways and ports are suffering from the issue of low draft depth, building indigenous dredgers and project monitoring systems is one of the ministry’s priorities.

The online portal, which is developed by the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts, will bring in synergy among multiple inputs, such as daily dredging and the pre- and post-dredging survey data, before processing and producing real-time report, a statement by the Union ministry of ports, shipping, and waterways (MoPSW) said.

“The monitoring system will also allow daily and monthly progress visualisation, dredger performance, and downtime monitoring, easy location track data with a snapshot of loading, unloading and idle time,” the statement by the Union ministry of ports, shipping, and waterways (MoPSW) said.

After the ministry updated the dredging guidelines for major ports to allow for reuse of the dredged materials to offset the environmental impact of these projects, the portal is expected to further the Centre’s vision of waste to wealth.

According to government estimates, the annual maintenance dredging for major ports and waterways is around 100 million cubic metres, for which about Rs1,000 crore is spent each year by the Ports and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).

“Now with implementation of the addendum of the dredging guidelines and by using Sagar Samriddhi, the dredging cost will be greatly reduced along with bringing in more transparency and efficiency in the overall system,” the ministry said.

Last year, the Centre also moved to build the first indigenous dredger, which is being built by Cochin Shipyard at an estimated cost of Rs 920 crore.

“The monitoring system is expected to enable better productivity, better contract management and also effective reuse of dredged material with the concept of waste to wealth in mind,” said Sudhansh Pant, secretary of MoPSW.