The dredging industry has urged the Centre to grant pan-India validity to security clearances issued to dredging companies and portability of clearances for identified foreign personnel deployed on foreign-flag dredgers operating in India.
The industry said prolonged security-clearance procedures are delaying mobilisation of specialised dredgers and experienced crews, affecting time-bound execution of major port infrastructure projects, including Vadhvan Port, the Outer Harbour Container Terminal at V.O. Chidambaranar Port and the proposed International Container Transshipment Port at Galathea Bay.
Under the existing January 2018 guidelines, security clearance for dredging companies is generally valid for five years for a particular port. While companies already cleared for one port face a simplified process when bidding for another, the industry wants this distinction to be formalised through a pan-India recognition and intimation-based mechanism.
The proposed framework would retain project-, vessel-, port- and location-specific security requirements while avoiding repetitive vetting where the company’s ownership, management and security profile remain unchanged.
The industry has also proposed pan-India portability of security clearance for identified foreign personnel, subject to unchanged identity and employment particulars, valid clearance and compliance with immigration, visa, port-entry and other location-specific requirements.
It stressed that the proposed reforms would not dilute national-security safeguards or eliminate project-specific scrutiny, but would reduce vessel and crew idle time, improve utilisation of specialised dredging capacity and support faster completion of dredging-dependent port infrastructure.
The industry has called for the revised framework to be applied uniformly across major and non-major ports.