City wants to expand dredging of Soai Rap River

HCMC – The HCMC government has asked the Ministry of Transport to allow port operators at Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park to dredge four more kilometers of Soai Rap River using their own money to attract larger vessels.
In its recent written document sent to the ministry, the city government said the second phase of a project to dredge 54 kilometers of Soai Rap Waterway to a depth of 9.5 meters is set for completion this month so that ports along this waterway can handle vessels of 30,000-50,000 DWT.

As the remaining four-kilometer-long, 8.5-meter-deep part of the river from the Saigon Premier Container Terminal (SPCT) to Binh Khanh T-junction in District 2 has not been included in the dredging project, the city has therefore suggested the ministry allow the port operators to finance the dredging of that section to the same depth of 9.5 meters to create a consistent waterway.
More than 54 kilometers of the Soai Rap Waterway has been dredged to 9.5 meters deep in the second phase of the Soai Rap dredging project to enable vessels of 30,000-50,000 DWT to navigate to and from ports along the river.
Dredging Soai Rap Waterway requires nearly VND2.8 trillion (US$132 million), with Belgium’s official development assistance (ODA) loans accounting for over VND2 trillion and the rest from the city’s budget.
On May 17, a 54,000-DWT ship entered SPCT via the newly-dredged waterway. Many shipping lines have registered to transport goods to and from ports in HCMC via Soai Rap Waterway before dredging work is complete this month.
At a meeting with HCMC vice chairman Nguyen Huu Tin last week, Rashed Ali Hassan Abdulla, vice chairman for Asia Pacific of Dubai Ports World (DP World) Group – the foreign investor in the joint venture SPCT, said the group would encourage international shipping lines to consider opening new routes linking Soai Rap Waterway and SPCT.
He said a container ship of over 50,000 DWT used the Soai Rap Waterway for the first time to dock at SPCT for loading and unloading goods instead of having to dock in the southern city of Vung Tau as before.
The Soai Rap Waterway offers a shorter itinerary than the Long Tau River.
He said that DP World would work with the local partner in SPCT over a plan to develop this terminal in the future.

Source: Source: The Saigon Times