Bay dredge to net Dutch firm $500-million

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Jan 2008

Port of Melbourne officials have defended the level of financial disclosure surrounding channel deepening in Port Phillip Bay.It has emerged today that the contract is worth $500-million to the Dutch company Boskalis. The figure was announced in Europe, but not in Australia.The Victorian Government has repeatedly claimed the contract details are commercial-in-confidence.The Chief Executive of the Port of Melbourne Corporation, Stephen Bradford says the overall cost is what matters."I think Victorians have greater interest in the total cost of the project, not the individual payments to contractors. The total cost of this very important project is $969-million," Mr Bradford said.Meanwhile, protesters in kayaks paddled onto the Yarra River's mouth this morning to greet the giant Dutch dredging ship, the Queen of the Netherlands.The ship is one of several that will remove millions of cubic metres of sand, rock and contaminated silt from the Bay, to allow larger container ships to berth in the Port of Melbourne.Opponents say the dredging will have disastrous environmental consequences and are continuing a legal battle to stop the project. They are planning further action in the Federal Court in Melbourne today. The Blue Wedges group believes the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, may have erred in approving the dredging project.The group also says the conditions for the project are yet to be met, because the Environment Management Plan is yet to be released and approved.But Mr Bradford says strict environmental conditions have been applied."Whilst there are a few people who do oppose the dredging of Port Phillip Bay, the overwhelming number of people in the community support this critical infrastructure project," he said."Forty four percent of the container vessels entering or leaving Melbourne do so not fully loaded because the restrictions of the draught of the channel," Mr Bradford said.The two-year project to deepen Melbourne's shipping channels is due to start on Friday.