CCEA approves procurement of 3 Trailer Suction Hopper Dredgers by DCI

New Delhi -- The Union Cabinet today g

ave its approval for the restructuring of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) under which selection of the Chairman will be done by a Search Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

The other members of the Committee will be Secretary, Department of road Transport the and highways, Secretary, Planning Commission, a CMD or MD of a financial institution and one of the directors of IIMs to be nominated by the Cabinet Secretary.

The tenure of the Chairman will now be fixed for at least three years, which can be extended up to five years. Age in case of the Chairman to be relaxed up to 62 years if required for three-year tenure.

The Cabinet also decided that the NHAI will have six full time members (against five at present) - one each for finance, administration, public private partnership (PPP), two members from project and one from technical.

It also approved increase in the number of part-time members to six from four, who would be from the non-government sector, one from either IITs or IIMs and the other from financial institutions.

Amendment in NHAI Act, 1988 was also approved. (ANI)

Chennai, July 20 (ANI): District and revenue authorities in Tamil Nadu‘s Salem, Erode, Karur, Namakkal,Trichy, Tanjavur, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam areas have issued a flood alert along the Cauvery River, as the Mettur Dam is fast approaching its full capacity.

Revenue officials said that the inflow into the Mettur dam has increased considerably, and therefore, the district authorities have been advised to take all precautionary measures.

People living along the river have been asked to shift to higher ground, and flood alert messages are being conveyed through the beating of drums in remote villages located along the river.

Meanwhile, Mettur Dam officials said the water level this morning stood at 118 feet as against the full reservoir level of 120 feet. The inflow into the dam has increased considerably following the release of more water into the Cauvery River from the Karnataka reservoirs.

The dam is receiving an inflow of 1, 19,000 cusecs, while the outflow is being maintained at 20,000 cusecs, the officials added. (ANI with inputs)

New Delhi, July 20 (ANI): The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today gave its approval for Dredging Corporation of India Limited (DCI) to procure three new Trailer Suction Hopper Dredgers each with a capacity of 5000 cubic meters.

It will be procured from IHC Holland Merwede BV of The Netherlands at a total expenditure of Rs.1087 crore.

DCI will be allowed to avail of external financing up to the extent of approximately Rs.730 crore. The loan would be sourced either from the domestic market or international market, and in case DCI resorts to ECB funding, it would seek the necessary approval from the competent authority.

DCI will have to pay balance amount from its internal resources.

At present, DCI has an installed dredging capacity of 79.85 million cubic metres. There are ambitious plans to increase the capacity of ports both by adding new berths and terminals, and by increasing the draft to enable bigger vessels to call at Indian Major Ports.

As per projections for 11th Plan, the estimated average maintenance and capital dredging demand in India is expected to be 82.30 million cubic metres and 133.09 million cubic metres respectively.

Taking into account the present dredging capacity of DCI and other dredging companies in India, there is an average shortage of 78 m

illion cubic metres dredging capacity. (ANI)