India’s maritime sector is a vital driver of economic growth. Nearly 95 per cent of the country’s trade by volume and 75 per cent by value moves through ports, highlighting the critical importance of efficient and modern maritime infrastructure. At the core of sustaining and expanding this ecosystem is dredging, which serves as a strategic enabler, ensuring navigability, enabling capacity expansion and supporting the development of both coastal and inland waterways. At a recent India Infrastructure conference, Captain S. Divakar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) Limited, shared his views on global and domestic dredging market insights, fleet expansion plans, inland waterways development, key challenges and the future opportunities. Edited excerpts…
Dredging is no longer merely an engineering activity; it is a strategic enabler for economic growth, maritime infrastructure, logistics and sustainable development of the blue economy. As India pursues the Maritime India Vision 2030 and Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 towards becoming a developed nation, critical questions arise regarding whether we are sufficiently investing in the dredging capabilities required to realise these goals. The issue is not whether dredging is necessary, but whether the industry is prepared to meet the scale, equipment demands, technological advancements and sustainability standards of the coming two decades.
India’s maritime sector is expanding rapidly, driven by increasing cargo volumes, deep-draught vessels, port modernisation initiatives under the Sagarmala Pariyojana, coastal shipping, inland waterways, offshore energy and broader maritime infrastructure development. This rapid expansion presents one of the largest growth opportunities for dredging in India’s history. The future belongs to smart and sustainable dredging, encompassing advanced dredge manufacturing, digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven fleets, remote monitoring, automation and the beneficial reuse of dredged material.
Charting the current dredging landscape and growth drivers
Despite a turbulent global economic landscape marked by geopolitical uncertainties, regional conflicts, oil crises and trade friction, the global dredging industry has witnessed steady growth in recent years, reaching a market size of more than $17 billion. The long-term forecast projects the market to expand to around $21 billion, progressing at a CAGR of roughly 2.1 per cent. This sustained growth is directly attributable to ongoing port development, coastal protection initiatives, and the maintenance of rivers and waterways. International merchandise trade accounts for roughly 70 per cent by value and over 80 per cent by volume. Additionally, this demand is primarily driven by port expansion, deepening projects, coastal infrastructure, land reclamation, inland waterways and offshore maritime infrastructure.
Focusing on the Indian landscape, the maritime sector anchors our trade ecosystem, facilitating nearly 95 per cent of trade by volume and around 70 per cent by value. The trade is distributed across 12 operational major ports and around 200 non-major ports along a 11,098 km coastline. The current market size stands at $314 million, with forecasts projecting growth to $620 million at a CAGR of 6.5 per cent. State maritime boards are playing a vital role in this expansion, with initiatives led by bodies such as the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board developing five to six new ports, alongside the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board, Gujarat Maritime Board and Maharashtra Maritime Board.
Ranking as the sixth largest maritime sector globally, India holds a strong strategic position in international shipping, which continuously drives the demand for port maintenance, expansion initiatives and domestic dredging services.
In the coming years, the Indian dredging industry is well positioned to benefit from rapid economic growth and supportive government policies promoting infrastructure development.
Key operational metrics and project pipeline
During 2025-26, the total dredging volume stood at about 210 mcm, comprising 160 mcm (76 per cent) in maintenance dredging and 50 mcm (24 per cent) in capital dredging. Further, maintenance dredging is split into approximately 140 mcm (88 per cent) across major and non-major ports, with the remaining 20 mcm (12 per cent) allocated to naval bases, waterways and fisheries. Port-wise maintenance dredging volume is distributed between major ports at about 85 mcm (61 per cent) and non-major ports at 55 mcm (39 per cent).
DCI is currently engaged in a diverse portfolio of dredging projects across major ports and inland waterways. Its ongoing work spans Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Hooghly; Visakhapatnam Port; Cochin Port; Jawaharlal Nehru Port; Paradip Port and New Mangalore Port. In inland waterways, DCI is undertaking projects on National Waterway 2 (Brahmaputra) and National Waterway 16, along with capital dredging for the multimodal terminal channel at Haldia. These projects reflect DCI’s continued role in supporting port operations, maintaining navigability and enabling the development of India’s coastal and inland waterway infrastructure.
Additionally, during 2025-26, DCI reported a total income of Rs 12.14 billion, utilising a fleet size of 11 vessels. Total volume dredged reached 74 mcm during the year, and DCI’s share across major Indian ports stood at 87 per cent.
Mapping the dredging demand for the next 10 years
Over the next decade, the total dredging demand in India is projected at 3,200 mcm across maintenance and capital requirements. Maintenance dredging demand accounts for 2,000 mcm over the decade, comprising 1,060 mcm (53 per cent) at major ports and 940 mcm (47 per cent) at non-major ports. Annual maintenance dredging requirements across all ports are expected to grow from 140 mcm in 2025 to 180 mcm in 2031 and reach 210 mcm by 2036. Additionally, the annual maintenance dredging specifically at major ports is projected to expand from 85 mcm in 2025 to 100 mcm in 2031 and 126 mcm by 2036.
Capital dredging demand accounts for 1,195 mcm over the next 10 years, with non-major ports leading the demand at 730 mcm (61 per cent) compared to 465 mcm, (39 per cent) across major ports. Major ports capacity addition within capital dredging comprises 235 mcm for brownfield projects and 230 mcm for greenfield projects.
Expanding fleet strength and operational capacity for future requirements
As India advances towards joining the ranks of top global maritime nations and modernises its marine infrastructure, DCI is gearing up to act as a critical capability enabler. In terms of creation, as the next generation of Indian ports is designed to accommodate deeper waters and larger vessels, DCI’s role begins well before the first commercial vessel arrives by establishing the necessary marine depth. Key upcoming and expanding projects include Vadhvan port, Galathea Bay and the V.O. Chidambaranar Port outer harbour expansion, numerous non-major ports along the Andhra Pradesh coastline, and ongoing developments across Visakhapatnam, Cochin and Mangaluru ports.
Regarding maintenance, port depths must be consistently maintained to support India’s growing trade volumes. Maintenance dredging is far more than routine upkeep—it safeguards navigational safety, vessel access, operational productivity and cargo-handling capacity. At the same time, India’s port infrastructure is undergoing a significant shift in design draughts, with several upcoming ports being planned with deeper navigation channels and existing ports undertaking progressive deepening of their draughts to accommodate larger vessels and evolving global trade requirements. This transition towards deeper and more capable ports will require sustained maintenance dredging and enhanced dredging capacity across India’s maritime network.
Under its Vision 2036, DCI aims to position itself as a global leader in dredging by modernising and expanding fleet capacity while securing long-term capital and maintenance dredging mandates. Strategic growth drivers include port expansion under the Maritime India Vision 2030, alignment with the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, surging dredging demand driven by rising cargo volumes and deeper draught, and building domestic self-reliance to reduce foreign dependency. The execution strategy centres on four core growth pillars: fleet modernisation, capacity expansion, operational excellence and skill development.
At the same time, existing ports are actively modernising and upgrading their maritime foundations by combining deeper and wider channels, upgraded berths, newly created lagoons, dock arms, mechanisation and improved infrastructure. DCI’s role is to support this modernisation through specialised dredging, de-siltation, land reclamation and marine construction project consultancy. It also aims to expand capacity around the existing port footprint, as every brownfield expansion creates additional requirements for navigation channels, turning basins, berth pockets and approach depths. Moreover, DCI intends to diversify operations beyond conventional port dredging into inland waterways, shallow water dredging, land reclamation, beach nourishment, coastal protection and project management consultancy.
To scale up and build the capacity required for 2036, DCI is actively expanding its fleet and operational capabilities. During the Maritime India Summit, the central government has announced a Rs 40 billion modernisation/capacity augmentation initiative for DCI. Under this initiative, our first new trailing suction hopper dredger, the Godavari, a 12,000 cubic metre vessel built at Cochin Shipyard under the Make in India/Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, in technical collaboration with Royal IHC and based on the Beagle platform, is expected to join DCI’s fleet during 2026-27.
Following this, DCI plans to order a 4,000 kW cutter suction dredger with a shore pumping capacity of 5-6 km and 18,000 kW of total installed power for capital dredging. By 2030, we will add a 12,000 hopper capacity vessel and a shallow-water dredger of about 3,000 cubic metres hopper capacity. This shallow-water vessel is specifically designed for areas where larger dredgers cannot operate such as Haldia and Puducherry. Depending on market conditions by 2030, we may order two additional vessels – a 16,000 and a 20,000 hopper capacity dredger.
Through this expansion, the total annual dredging capacity for DCI is projected to increase from 54 mcm today to 170 mcm over the next decade at a CAGR of 12.1 per cent, comprising 126 mcm of maintenance dredging and 44 mcm of capital dredging. Additionally, the fleet size is expected to grow from 9 to 21 vessels by 2036, increasing total hopper capacity from 54,000 cubic metres to 111,000 cubic metres.