Calcutta, Oct. 17: Haldia port may become useless in two months if the Centre doesn’t start dredging the Hooghly, industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen warned today as the government swung into action.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee held a meeting with chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb, Calcutta Port Trust chairman Anup Chanda and Sen to review the situation and called up Union shipping minister T.R. Baalu to express concern about the “crisis’’.

Shipping secretary A.P.V.N. Sarma, who was here to celebrate 138 years of the Calcutta Port Trust, was summoned to Writers’ Buildings.

Sen said: “Things are worsening by the day as dredging work is not progressing well. Massive silt deposition is a major problem now and if the trend continues for two months, Haldia port will become inoperative. The Centre needs to take drastic action and speed up dredging. Otherwise, the port can’t be saved.”

It is being alleged that only three dredgers are working in Haldia instead of at least five because many of them have been assigned to the Setusamudram project in the shipping minister’s home state, Tamil Nadu.

Sarma, however, held out hope. After a meeting with the chief secretary and the industries secretary, he said a fourth dredger would be deployed by October 24 and another would join soon after. “This will help in mitigating the immediate problem by not allowing further siltation,” he said.

Two dredgers are being chartered and they will come to Haldia in 45 days, Sarma added. These are expected to increase the draught.

A survey by the port has shown that the draught (depth during high tide minus the clearance required under a ship) in one of the tracks is only 6.5 metres. The minimum draught large vessels require is 6.6 metres.

Work to create an alternative channel is on but that could take time.