A Greenfield Project in India
Type:
Presented during:
WODCON XVIII - 2007 Orlando, Florida, USA
Authors:
GeorgeandZandbergen
Abstract: In the early 90’s, the economy of India underwent a major change; the centrally-planned economy, which was the norm after independence in 1947, changed into a market-oriented economy. This change in direction created opportunities for private entrepreneurs and the private sector started showing interest in infrastructural greenfield projects. Dredging industry has also attracted the attention of many private players now as opposed to the monopoly maintained earlier by Government organizations.
The state of Gujarat located in the North Western part of India has a very long coastline and is not only strategically located in relation to the large Northern and Western hinterland, but also to Western, Middle East and African markets. The all weather deep draft port of Mundra in the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, offered scope for Greenfield planned development of port and surroundings. The promoters started to investigate the possibilities for the best choices in order to create a modern port with storage facilities, having the advantage of a large back up area for development of port based industries and support services.
It was decided to develop in-house Dredging strength without being dependent on outside agencies. The plan to reclaim huge areas of land, to make them suitable for port activities and related industries including shipbuilding, and for development of a Special Economic Zone under the new National policy, resulted in the deployment of three medium-sized cutter suction dredgers. The deepening work for the port and reclamation of huge areas of land are being taken up to support this ambitious plan.
This paper will describe how a Greenfield port based project in India is under development in close cooperation with all stake holders. The emphasis is on the dredging and reclamation works under execution, selection and operation of the dredging equipment.
Keywords: Cutter suction dredger, booster station, economy of scale, hands on training, dredging costs.