Orissa disposes
The battle between the Orissa government and Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), over the extension of the port’s operational limits, has taken a new turn today as a top KoPT official said that it was willing to share a common area of operation with Dhamra or any other port in Orissa coast.
“We are ready for a common area operation with Dhamra or any other port in Orissa. Though the idea was floated at a meeting held in New Delhi last week, the Orissa government was not too keen about it. If they are for national interest, why can't they think about a common area in international waters, we are always open to it. We want the transloading terminal at Kanika sands and 270-metre long multi-purpose jetty tocome up for the overall development of the region, where operations can be done for atleast four to five months a year,” said a top port official, who does want to be named.
Responding to this, G K Dhal, principal secretary (commerce & transport), Orissa government said, “Our stand is the same, we are against sharing of area with KoPT. The KoPT authorities had sought a transloading facility in 2008 near the coast of the Dhamra port and we had asked them to have further discussions on the proposal. However, KoPT authorities did not have any discussions with us on the issue and instead, extended their port limits unilaterally without intimating us. Even now, we are open to have a dialogue with the KoPT on this proposal but first they have to withdraw the notification which has arbitrarily revised their port limits”.
The transloading terminal and 270-metre long multi-purpose jetty are expected to cost around Rs 590 crore and would come up in public private partnership mode. According to port estimates, the facilities will help it to handle more than 6 million tonnes of cargo per year, which means more than 80 vessels can reach the port. “Through this, the country and the region can save $ 1 lakh per vessel and $ 80 lakh per year,” he said.
However, industry calculations peg the figures much higher. “I think it will be much higher as steel industry can only save close to $200 to $300 million per year,” said Prabir Mitra, Chairman and Managing Director of Capstan Shipping Ltd. On January 20 this year, the Orissa government had written a letter to the Centre on the issue. The revised port limits extended more than 200 kilo metre south of Haldia into the Bay of Bengal covering an area of 28646 square kilo metre.
There were widespread protests in Orissa, as the extension of limits was expected to affect the future of seven upcoming minor ports there — Dhamra, promoted by Tata Steel and L&T, Chudamani, Chandipur, Inchudi, Subarnarekha mouth, Bichitrapur and Bahabalpur ports.
Speaking to the media recently, Sanjeev Sahoo, Minister for Commerce and Transport of Orissa government, had said that a direction was given to the KoPT by the Union shipping secretary K Mohandas at a high-level meeting to put on hold the tendering process for the proposal. Meanwhile, a public interest litigation has been filed in the Orissa High Court against the proposed transloading terminal at Kanika sands.
According to KoPT sources, Orissa government is against the plan because they had signed a concession agreement with Dhamra port saying that would be no other commercial port operation in a certain radius for some years. “They had signed the agreement which says no port can exist in a radius of 25 kilo metres. Then how can Chudamini port in Orissa exist with in 5 km area of Dhamra?,” the official asked. He expressed confidence that in another two months tendering process can be finalised for the transloading terminal.
