Although the ministry of shipping on Wednesday said that Rs 267 crore would be released as dredging subsidy to the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), which administers the Kolkata and Haldia ports, ministry officials indicated that this could be last time such a subsidy would be disbursed.
Operations at both the facilities have been substantially hampered in recent months due to heavy siltation of major navigational channels. The situation has been salvaged by dredging of these routes, undertaken by the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), which has cost KoPT upwards of Rs 250 crore.
For this fiscal, KoPT had claimed more than Rs 700 crore from the ministry of shipping including old dues and the Budgetary provisions. The subsidy had been last received in April 2009. However, this could well be the end of the road for the grant scheme. “This may be the last time that the finance ministry will approve a subsidy for KoPT. Over the years, the Centre has paid about Rs 4,000 crore for the port to survive. Now, we will have to seek an alternative to the Haldia port and KoPT will be suggested to speak to the West Bengal government for acquisition of land at Sagar,” an official said.
In the Union Budget for 2010-11, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to develop a port at Sagar Island in recognition to the requirement of an alternative port facility in West Bengal. “Necessary funds will be provided in due course,” he had said.
Apart from logistics-related issues, acquisition of land at Sagar Island before the Assembly election in West Bengal may be a significant impediment for the immediate implementation of the project.
KoPT officials acknowledged that running the two facilities, which service a vast hinterland including eastern India and the neighbouring states of Nepal and Bhutan, would be nearly impossible without the Centre's dredging subsidy.
“It will be very difficult (without the subsidy) as no other port in the country has to maintain a 235 km-long navigational channel. After the 1996 Indo-Bangladesh Water Treaty, there was a prime ministerial assurance that the interest of KoPT would be taken care of,” the official said.
The ministry of shipping, however, has mooted a Rs 995-crore plan for undertaking River Regulatory Measures (RRM) to improve the depth at channels leading into the Haldia port. Last month, Union shipping minister GK Vasan had asked KoPT to work on a detailed proposal for the project that would include river training works and capital dredging.
