Mumbai, May 20: Three port trusts and two public sector companies are planning to form a consortium to set up a mega dredging company at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore.

The company is to be formed by the Mumbai Port Trust, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Calcutta Port Trust, Mazagon Dock and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), sources said.

“The initiative to form a dredging company has been taken by JNPT and SCI. They have made a proposal to us. We are studying the cost benefit of it. In case the proposal is found to be feasible, we will take it to the Board of Trustees for approval. We are yet to decide,” said Calcutta Port Trust chairman A.K. Chanda.

This proposal is to go before the Union cabinet shortly for clearance.

The Dredging Corporation of India is the only domestic company to carry out dredging and has been able to meet only 10 per cent of the country’s demand. This has made dredging a monopoly of foreign companies.

The proposed dredging company is expected to be three to four times bigger than the Dredging Corporation of India, as the demand for dredging is on the rise, with 12 major ports and 187 minor ports along the 7,517-km Indian coastline on an expansion mode, sources said.

Earlier reports suggested that this dredging company would take in foreign companies as partners.

However, this idea has been dismissed because the foreign companies form a cartel for dredging activities in India.