DCI to acquire 3 more dredgers

Visakhapatnam-based Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) will invest around Rs 900 crore over the next three years to acquire three cutter suction dredgers.

DCI currently has 10 cutter and two trailer suction dredgers. Two years ago, it had placed an order on Mumbai-based Mazagaon Dock for a cutter suction dredger worth Rs 275 crore, which will be inducted by December 2007 in the DCI fleet.

"We have started the tendering process and it will take three years to purchase these three vessels," DCI sources told.

This apart, DCI has been chartering dredgers from the international market through Transchart to meet the immediate demand.

It has already chartered two vessels of varying capacities to take up the Sethusamudram ship channel project work and two more will be included within a couple of months, they said.

The dredging capacity currently available with DCI is 79.8 million lakh cubic metre. During 2006-07, the quantity dredged under various contracts was 76.3 million cubic metre.

The company earned a net profit of Rs 188.73 crore on Rs 622.09 crore turnover during the year 2006-07. Its earnings per share for 2006-07 stood at Rs 67.40 compared with Rs 63.02 for the previous year. It has declared a dividend of 150 per cent for the second time, on a paid-up share capital of Rs 48.64 crore.