KARACHI, June 7: The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) on Wednesday procured a latest state-of-the-art Backhoe dredger from Netherlands at a cost of 12.073 million euros.

A contract for the buying the dredger with Shipyard De-Donge was signed on Feb 1, 2006.

The Backhoe dredger — Ali — has an average dredging capacity of 400 cubic metres per hour. After induction it will be used for dredging sand, clay, soft and hard rocks from Karachi harbour’s approach channel.

Its bucket capacity is 8.5 cubic metres and has an excavator penetration force of 100 tons with 180 degree range and can accommodate eight crew members on board. It will enable the Karachi Port to accommodate larger ships in future.

In addition, the dredger will undertake dredging for KPT’s future projects such as the Pakistan Deep Water Container Port at Keamari and the Cargo Village being set up at KPT’s western backwaters and requires capital dredging of around 16 million cubic metres.