Karwar: The Department of Ports, which is under loss due to accumulated silt at the estuary of Karwar port has finalised a budget of Rs 31 crore for dredging. As part of the same, a ship based from Singapore has already started survey work two days ago.
The government intends to extract silt from the port area till Ladies’ beach. The accumulated silt, has reduced the depth of the sea, and two tugs are required to control the ships coming out of the way at the time of dredging.
At present the movement of ships and the fishing vessels is smooth and steady from the area covering the Ladies’ Beach till Devgad island which is 10mtrs deep. Hence if the silt is removed from Port to Ladies’ beach covering 4 to 5 km distance it will enable fishing vessels to move easily.
Survey work begins
The tender process has been completed to remove the silt from the port and the work will resume by November. The survey work, testing rocks and soil has been started by a Singapore-based ship and the entire dredging work will be completed by next February.
The channel has been built directly from Baitakol commercial port to Devgad island and all the fishing vessels must enter and exit the port through this channel. When the channel gets filled with sludge, the movement of fishing vessels gets difficult, also affecting revenue of the port. Though the department had decided to start dredging work by April-May, it got delayed due to some reasons.
After the survey, two dredgers will resume work of removing sludge and the work will be completed by next February, said Assistant executive engineer at Karwar port Narayanappa.