Hold Cleaning at Kandla Port
Holds ready for the next fixture at Kandla Port — India's highest-tonnage bulk and liquid gateway.
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Tell us the vessel, the port and the window. Scoped reply, usually the same working day.
Cleanship Marine cleans cargo holds at Kandla Port (INIXY), Gujarat — shore gangs alongside, riding crews on the passage out, and IRATA rope access teams for the upper hold. The standard is the one the next fixture demands, and the residue and washings are disposed of to MARPOL Annex V rather than left with the master.
Kandla, officially Deendayal Port, is among the highest-tonnage ports in India and the principal liquid and dry bulk gateway for the north and west of the country. Tankers on edible oil and POL parcels and bulk carriers on fertiliser and grain make up most of the traffic. Cleanship keeps an operating base at Kandla, so divers, compressors and cleaning gear are held locally rather than flown in against a berth window.
Working conditions at Kandla
Work here runs both alongside and at anchorage depending on the call, and on the passage out where neither gives enough time. The south-west monsoon sets the outer limits of the calendar, roughly June to September, and it affects the anchorage far more than the berth. Access approval runs through Deendayal Port Authority and the terminal, and the disposal route for residues and washings is fixed before the gang boards rather than found afterwards.
- Where we work
- Kandla creek berths · Oil jetties · Outer anchorage
- Vessels we see here
- Product and chemical tankers · Bulk carriers · General cargo ships
Hold Cleaning scopes at Kandla
3 scopes, one team and one mobilisation. Most vessels calling here take more than one on the same attendance.
Planning the window at Kandla
The south-west monsoon governs the calendar at Kandla Port, roughly June to September. Swell and reduced surface visibility close most open-water work on this coast for the duration, and the weeks either side are unreliable rather than unusable. Some vessels sit and some turn straight round, so the plan is agreed against the actual call rather than a standard package: a shore gang alongside where there is time, a riding crew on the outward passage where there is not.
Cleanship holds an operating base at Kandla, so we can hold a team ready against a shifting ETA rather than committing travel to a date that may move.
What we typically find at Kandla
Kandla runs grain, fertiliser and salt through the same berths, and fertiliser residues are the difficult ones: hygroscopic, corrosive to coatings and unforgiving if a grain cargo follows. Grain-clean standards here are worked to a surveyor attendance, so the cleaning plan is built backwards from the inspection, not forwards from the discharge.
Agricultural and fertiliser parcels dominate here, and they are the unforgiving residues: hygroscopic, corrosive to coatings if left damp, and an outright inspection failure ahead of a food-grade cargo. Holds shut up wet at Kandla are holds that need doing twice.
How we deliver it at Kandla
- 1
Scope and vessel details
Tell us the vessel, her particulars, the last and next cargo and the window at Kandla. We come back with a defined scope, a crew size and a duration we will stand behind. Where the conditions here will not support what has been asked for, we say so at this stage rather than after mobilisation.
- 2
Approvals and waste routing
Access and working approval is arranged with Deendayal Port Authority and the terminal, and the disposal route for residues and washings is fixed before the gang boards — MARPOL Annex V compliance is a documented chain at Kandla, not an assurance. Where reception is limited, the plan changes rather than the paperwork.
- 3
Mobilisation to Kandla
Cleanship holds an operating base at Kandla, so gangs, pumps, chemicals and equipment are on the ground rather than in transit. That is the difference between meeting a window and missing it.
- 4
Entry, sequencing and the work
Enclosed-space entry runs to the vessel's own permit system, with a fresh gas test before every entry and after every break. Gas testing, standby cover and continuous supervision run throughout, and progress is reported hold by hold rather than only at the end.
- 5
Report and handover
A completion report covering hold cleaning is issued with before-and-after imagery, hold by hold and anything found that you should know about. The findings are discussed with the vessel rather than emailed and forgotten.
Kandla Port at a glance
- UN/LOCODE
- INIXY
- Port type
- Major Port
- State
- Gujarat
- Country
- India
- Water body
- Gulf of Kutch
- Port authority
- Deendayal Port Authority
- Main cargoes
- POL and edible oils, Fertiliser and raw materials, Grain, Salt, Timber, Containers
- Crew mobilisation
- Kandla (IXY) / Bhuj (BHJ)
- Services here
- Hull Cleaning, Hold Cleaning and Tank Cleaning
Frequently asked — Kandla Port
Does Cleanship provide hold cleaning at Kandla Port?
Yes. We cover the full hold cleaning scope at Kandla Port (INIXY), Gujarat — cargo hold cleaning (shore gang), hold cleaning riding crew and rope access hold cleaning. Cleanship holds an operating base at Kandla.
Where is the work done at Kandla — alongside, at anchorage or on passage?
Work here runs both alongside and at anchorage depending on the call, and on the passage out where neither gives enough time.
Who approves hold cleaning work at Kandla?
Deendayal Port Authority issues the port-side approval at Kandla Port, with terminal approval on top where the berth requires it. We arrange both, along with the waste reception and disposal route, so it does not fall to the agent or the master.
Which vessels call at Kandla?
Product and chemical tankers, Bulk carriers, General cargo ships — Kandla Port is India's highest-tonnage bulk and liquid gateway, handling pol and edible oils, fertiliser and raw materials, grain, salt, timber, containers. Those are the profiles we see most, and the scope is sized to the vessel rather than to a standard package.
Can this be done without taking the vessel off hire at Kandla?
Yes — that is the point of it. Every scope listed here is carried out with the vessel afloat and working, at the berth, at the anchorage or on the passage out. Shore gangs work alongside or at anchorage and riding crews finish on the passage, so no port time is spent on cleaning and the vessel is never off hire.
Do you cover other ports near Kandla?
Yes. Mundra, Navlakhi and Okha all sit within the same operating range for hold cleaning, and a single mobilisation is often sized to cover more than one vessel on the same trip. We work 45 ports on the coverage list for this line.
Hold Cleaning at Kandla Port.
Tell us the vessel, her ETA at Kandla and the window. You get a scope, a crew size and an honest duration — usually the same working day.