Calcutta, Nov. 6: Industries minister Nirupam Sen today wrote to Union shipping minister G.K. Vasan urging him to open a new shipping channel to save Haldia Port.

Sen said intensive dredging had failed to arrest the steep decline of river draft — allowable depth of a ship’s keel under water — in the existing channel, forcing many Haldia-bound vessels to skip the port or wait for long periods.

The draft has been a cause of concern for industries — some of them in Haldia town and many beyond — which fear a cost escalation if ship movement is restricted.

Calcutta Port Trust has approved in principle the creation of the new channel in the Hooghly. It now has to pick a firm to remove silt from a stretch 1,200 meters in length and 200 metres in width to open up the waterway, tentatively called Eden. Sen has pleaded with the Centre to take the job up on a priority basis.

A section of port employees today said the draft in the Auckland channel had fallen to 6.4 metres, though the port trust chairman denied it. A 6.4-metre draft will shut the door to many more ships as they would be able to bring no more than 20,000 tonnes.