The Orissa government will take a final call on the proposal of JSW Infrastructure Ltd to set up a Rs 2238 crore captive port at Bichitrapur in Balasore district after a technical feasibility study of the project location by an independent agency.
The study is likely to be done either by Pune based Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) or National Institute of Oceanography of Goa.
After receiving the preliminary report of the study, the state government will take a decision on allowing JSW Infrastructure to build the port at the identified location, said state transport and commerce minister, Sanjiv Kumar Sahu.
The need for such a study arose as the site is in close proximity to another port project at Kirtania for which the state government has singed MoU with the Chennai based Creative Port Development Pvt Ltd (CPDPL).
While Kirtania is on the south of the confluence of Subarnarekha river with Bay of Bengal, Bichitrapur (the site selected by JSW) is on the north of the river mouth, separated by a mere 10 km.Environmentalists feared building of two ports on north and south sides of the river mouth may lead to siltation and complete closure of the river mouth affecting discharge of the river water into the sea.In this backdrop, the state government had doubted the veracity of the environment impact assessment study conducted by DHI Water and Environment on behalf of JSW Infrastructure and referred the report to R. Sundara Vadi Velu, Professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras for expert opinion.
On the basis of Velu’s expert opinion, the state could not be fully convinced about the location of the JSW’s port project and hence decided to conduct a techno-feasibility study of the site by an independent agency, Sahu said.JSW Infrastructure proposed to up a Rs 2238-crore captive deep sea port at Bichitrapur with a final cargo handling capacity of 45 million tonnes per annum in three phases. The first phase with a cargo throughput of 10 mtpa and estimated cost of Rs 550 crore is scheduled for commissioning by 2013.In the second phase the cargo capacity will go up to 20 mpta with an investment of Rs 750 crore while the third phase, to be completed by 2020, envisages additional investment of Rs 938 crore.
The port will handle cargo like coking coal, thermal coal, met coke, dolomite limestone, iron ore, finished steel products, bauxite, gypsum and clinker.
Out of the total investment of Rs 2238 crore, JSW will invest Rs 230 crore on land development, Rs 243 crore on berths, Rs 120 crore on breakwaters and embankments, Rs 900 crore on dredging and Rs 366 crore on handling equipment.