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The pending order of the Odisha High Court (HC) with respect to non-major port projects in the state has held up the transfer of land for developing the Subarnarekha port in Balasore district.
Out of 961.18 acres land needed for this port, 692.68 acres have been alienated in the name of state commerce & transport department. Alienation process for the balance patch of land is underway.
The alienated land could not be transferred in favour of the port promoter since the matter pertaining to all non-major ports is sub-judice with the Odisha HC, minister for commerce & transport Ramesh Majhi informed the state assembly through a written statement. The port developer has already paid Rs 1.04 crore for land alienation, he stated.
In May 2011, the HC restrained the state government from signing any further MoU (memorandum of understanding) with any developer for setting up of any port in the state. The port to come up south of the Subarnarekha river mouth is being developed by Chennai-based Creative Port Development Ltd.
The project proponent had signed MoU with the Odisha government in December 2006 and entered into a concession agreement on January 11, 2008. The cost of developing the port is estimated at Rs 2,345 crore.
The port would have an initial capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) which was to be scaled up to 40 mtpa in 10 years. As per this agreement, the port developer would share revenue with the state government at the rate of five per cent from first to fifth year, eight per cent from sixth to 10th year, 10 per cent from 11th to 15th year and 12 per cent for the remaining 15 years.
The project is tipped to create direct and indirect employment for around 3,000 people.
