Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) and Ayush Shri Sarbananda Sonowal launched ‘SAGAR SAMRIDDHI’ - the online dredging monitoring system - in order to accelerate ‘Waste to Wealth’ initiative of the Ministry here today. Secretary of MoPSW Sudhansh Pant along with other senior officials of the Ministry, Major Ports and Organisations also attended this programme.

This system has been developed by National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts (NTCPWC) the technological arm of MoPSW. The new technology brings in marked improvement against the old system of Draft & Loading Monitor (DLM) system. The system will bring in synergy among multiple input reports like daily dredging report, the pre and post dredging survey data before processing and producing real time dredging report. The ‘Sagar Samriddhi’ monitoring system will also allow Daily and monthly progress Visualisation, Dredger performance and downtime monitoring, easy location track data with snapshot of loading, unloading and idle time  .This system strengthens the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India vision of PM Modi.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Sonowal said, “Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi gave us the mantra of ZERO DEFECT and ZERO EFFECT and MoPSW is following his vision. In the era of advanced technology, it is essential to apply technology for monitoring the system so that human error can be minimised. From now onwards the Major Ports would be able to utilise the Online Dredging Monitoring System and bring about significant change in project implementation and bring down cost of dredging through use of the dredged materials. This will help in environment sustainability and will bring down the operational costs of the ports, bringing in more transparency and efficiency’.”

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

To address the objective of carrying out dredging with essential technical investigation the MoPSW issued ‘Dredging Guidelines for Major Ports’ in 2021. The Dredging Guidelines outlined the procedure for planning and preparation, technical investigations, dredged material management, estimating the cost of dredging etc., to enable the Major Ports to formulate the dredging projects in order to complete in time. In March 2023 Ministry issued Addendum to the Dredging Guidelines 2021 for Major Ports for disposal of dredged material by incorporating a necessary provision in bidding documents which will help in reducing the dredging cost in form of 'Waste to Wealth’. It outlines a wide range of beneficial use of dredged material including engineering use for construction purposes, environmental enhancement including beach nourishment etc. to bring down the cost of the dredging.

The annual maintenance dredging at Major Ports and Waterways is around 100 million cubic meters, for which about Rs.1000 crores are spent each year by the Ports and IWAI. Now with implementation of the Addendum of the Dredging guidelines and by using the Sagar Samriddhi, online dredging monitoring system, the dredging cost will be greatly reduced along with bringing in more transparency and efficiency in the overall system.

The MIV 2030 enables preparation of roadmap for taking up projects including dredging projects. The MIV also envisages developing Major Ports as transshipment hubs wherever possible and increasing their capacity by way of deepening their channels and near berths. Hence, dredging requirement will increase during the next decade with deep draft Ports of more than 18 meters’ draft.

Presently Cochin Port and Mumbai Port, have adopted the system and on New Mangalore Port and Deendayal Port it is running on trial basis. Now, MoPSW has mandated all Major Ports and lWAl to monitor the dredging activity through this system with customisation from NTCPWC. Accordingly, new dredgers will be using this system along with the old dredgers, which will be upgraded and equipped with the new system.

The NTCPWC was established under the Sagarmala Programme of MoPSW with the total investment of ₹ 77 Crores at IIT Madras which was inaugurated by the Minister on  24^th April 2023. The aim of the centre is to enable research & development for the marine sector, enabling solutions towards achieving the ultimate goal of building a robust marine industry in the country. This state-of-the-art centre has world class capabilities for undertaking the 2D & 3D investigations of research and consultancy nature for the Port, Coastal, and Waterways sector across all disciplines. Modelling of Ocean, determining the Coastal & Estuarine Flows, Sediment transport and morph dynamics, planning of Navigation and Manoeuvring, estimation of Dredging & Siltation, consultancy in Port and Coastal Engineering – designing the Structures and Breakwaters, Autonomous Platforms & vehicles, Experimental & CFD modelling of flow & Hull interaction, Hydrodynamics of multiple hulls, Ocean renewable energy coupled with port facilities are some of the areas where NTCPWC has already contributed to optimise capability of marine sector of India. The laboratories created are among the best in comparison with other International Labs in the specific domain.

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MJPS