Gadkari meets Mamata, assures funding for Sagar port project

The Rs 12,000-cr port, which was proposed in FY14 Union Budget, hardly saw any progress

Setting aside the ongoing political fight over Saradha scam, West  Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday, met Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, who has assured central funding for the proposed deep sea port near Sagar island in the state.

The Rs 12,000-crore Sagar port, which may add 60 million tonnes cargo handling capacity to the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), was proposed in 2013-14 Union Budget. However, there has been hardly any progress apart from the announcement in the project, so far. RITES the consultant appointed by the Kolkata Port Trust to study the feasibility of the port had earlier submitted its report.

With the state government raising the matter in today’s meeting, Gadakari today assured that the project is very much in the Centre’s scheme. “Kolkata port and West Bengal government have decided to take up a joint venture to build the deep sea port in Sagar,”  West  Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said after the meeting.

Gadkari has assured that the allocation for the project would be made in the upcoming budget. “West Bengal government has extended all cooperation. Chief secretary would hold talks if there is an issue in future. I have assured Centre will be always cooperative when it come to development of the state. Funding will not be any problem for the Sagar project,” Gadkari said, in a seminar organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here.

Besides, Gadkari has also assured Rs 6,000 crore contracts for seven new road projects of 294 km in state, would be awarded in the next two months.

However, Gadkari took a dig at the anti-industry image of the state. “For  more development and investment in Bengal and Kerala, mindset needs to be changed,” he noted.

Incidentally, this is the first time Mamata Banerjee met a visiting central minister and earlier her ministers and secretaries refused to hold talks with minister of state for urban development Babaul Supriyo, who hails from the state.

“Development is development. Politics is politics,” Banerjee said today.

Before the meeting, Gadkari earlier in the day attended anti corruption rally organised by state BJP unit, where he had take on TMC.

Meanwhile, the Saradha controversy is continuing to haunt TMC as Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials today visited TMC party headquarter at Topsia here, to hand over a summon notice to party general secretary Shankudeb Panda. However, Panda was not present there, party workers in his absence refused to take the notice.