Corpus for Haldia, Kolkata port liabilities under study

The government may come up with a common corpus to meet liabilities of Kolkata and Haldia ports if it decides to give greater autonomy to the latter.

Ministry of shipping (MoS) has set up a five member committee comprising director general of shipping G S Sahani, deputy chairmen of Haldia and Kolkata M L Meena and M A Bhaskarachar respectively, West Bengal industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen and R R Sinha, ex-deputy chairman of Mumbai Port Trust to decide at the autonomy issue.

D T Joseph, secretary, MoS, said the final decision on the matter would be taken taking into consideration the committee report.

"I would not like to pre-empt what the committee has to say. I personally feel that a joint corpus can be built that will take care liabilities of both Haldia and Kolkata. Having done that, they can individually pursue growth path," he said.

The secretary, however, almost ruled out complete separation of two ports. Given that they are on the same river channel, it may not be feasible to delink them absolutely as happened with Jawharlal Nehru Port and Mumbai Port.

Which ever model helps growth would be taken up, he said adding the committee would submit report within four months.