Odisha gives in-principle nod to allot land for Dhamra port

State govt had earlier asked its ports directorate to assess land need for port as per guidelines of Rites Ltd, engineering and consultancy arm of Indian Railways

Paving the way for second phase expansion of Dhamra port, an equal joint venture between the Tatas and Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the Odisha government has given in-principle nod to allot land.

Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL), a special purpose vehicle implementing the port project, had sought 745 acres of land to facilitate its second phase expansion estimated to cost Rs 10,000 crore.

DPCL has 300 acres of surplus land that will also be used for the Phase-II upgrade that will see port capacity being ramped up to 100 million tonne per annum (mtpa) from 25 mtpa presently. DPCL needed around 1,000 acres to go ahead in its expansion plan.

"We have already given in-principle nod to allot land for Dhamra port's second phase expansion. DPCL has been asked to submit a detailed project report (DPR) on its expansion plan", said a top state official.

The state government had earlier asked its ports directorate to assess land need for the port in accordance with the guidelines of Rites Ltd, the engineering and consultancy arm of Indian Railways.

Rites had benchmarked land need for developers of non-major port projects in Odisha. In its final report submitted to the state commerce & transport department, Rites suggested a 'thumb rule' - allotting 50 acres of land for every million tonne of cargo handling capacity proposed by the developer.

Dhamra port which began commercial operations in May 2011 has been hit hard by curbs on iron ore exports.

After a slump in the iron ore export market, the port was aiming to boost its revenues through handling of diversified cargo like container cargo, liquid cargo, LNG (liquefied natural gas) and crude oil.

DPCL had chalked out Rs 10,000-crore expansion plan that was to ramp up its berth strength to 13 from two presently and upgrade cargo handling capacity four-fold from 25 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 100 mtpa in five years.

The second phase capacity ramp up would also pave the way for a five mtpa LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal to be set up within the port premises by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). The terminal to be setup at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore needed 150 acres of land. Both IOCL and DPCL had signed an MoU for the project.

Presently, the port with two berths, is capable of handling 12 million tonne of imported dry bulk cargo and 13 million tonne of dry bulk cargo for exports.