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India needs to open up dredging market: NITI
Why is it in the news ?
- The government think tank NITI Aayog has said that India needs to open up its dredging market to boost trade by its major ports.
- As per the NITI Aayog, India's major ports currently cannot handle very large vessels in the absence of proper draft depth.
More in the news
- Dredging refers to deepening port channels to allow larger ships to call for carrying cargo.
- More competition, mainly from global players, in dredging activities would help increase and maintain draft depth at ports and attract large vessels, enabling them to become hub ports.
- At present, the Dredging Corporation of India and a limited set of private vendors serve the Indian dredging market, limiting competition.
- In order to attract foreign players, government should consolidate dredging contracts across cohorts of ports and withdrawing, at least temporarily, the right to first refusal given to Indian vendors.
- To enable major ports to handle large vessels, the government has already made an action plan to increase the draft depth of ports.
- Some major ports are striving to achieve deeper drafts up to 18 metres.
- India has 12 major ports which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic .
Source
The Hindu.