EXCLUSIVE: Jan De Nul wins Port Victoria dredging contract in Seychelles

Jan De Nul has won a contract to conduct the dredging works for the Port Victoria expansion project in Seychelles.

According to Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA), additional negotiations will be done for the costing and, if possible, reduce the scoping size.

The port expansion and rehabilitation project have two major components:

• construction of a quay wall and cargo terminal,

• dredging of the harbour to accommodate vessels with drafts up to 14 metres.

The SPA chief executive, Sonny Payet, said: “When we launched the port project it included a large dredging in Port Victoria and we have seen that this does not make sense as the funds are not enough to cover the size of the dredging.”

For the extension project, SPA received $41 million – namely $35 million from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). The European Union (EU) has also provided a grant of around $6 million, the Seychelles News Agency said.

In the initial project, the port was expected to be extended to 40 metres, a venture the SPA said is too expensive.

In the revision of the project announced last year, the current quay will be extended by 10 metres out to sea towards the man-made island of Ile de Romainville. The channel and turning basin will be dredged to 16 metres and 15.5 metres respectively, allowing larger vessels to come into port.

“We have looked for the best bidder and we are already talking about 10 million and it is for this that we are going to negotiate with the company to see if we can reduce our scope for the dredging so that we can have a lower cost,” said Payet.

Jan De Nul has previously worked in Seychelles with projects on Praslin and La Digue.