Mumbai:Royal Boskalis West Minster N.V. is a Netherlands-based company that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure on an international basis. The company is claimed to have the world's largest dredging fleet.

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., has emerged the lowest bidder for the INR 1,571 cr. dredging project for deepening the main channel between Mumbai harbour and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT).

Four bidders three Dutch and one Korean have participated in the bid which was opened on Monday.

A JNPT official confirmed that Royal Boskalis is the lowest bidder, though it was yet to be officially announced.

Other bidders include Van Oord, Jan De Nul and Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company.

The bid was to award the contract for dredging the main navigation channel to deepen the port's draft to 14 meters, from the current 11 meters. This is a crucial project, as after the dreading, the port will be able to handle vessels up to 6,000 TEUs capacity.

Tata Consulting Engineering is the management consultants for the project.

The contract is given on an “Assured depth basis,”. This model is considered economical compared to a blanket contract. The port will meet the initial cost of dredging out of its internal resources; the balance will be raised through borrowings. The project is now slated to be completed by 2014.