A new minor port to come up at Shankarpur-Tajpur

Scrapping the Left Front government’s proposal of setting up a minor port at Rosulpur in East Midnapore due to lack of transparency, the Trinamool Congress government has plan to put up a similar one at Shankarpur-Tajpur. The project will be cost friendly as no land acquisition is required.

The Trinamool Congress government had engaged a firm to carry a survey and to prepare a feasibility report. Dr Amit Mitra, the state finance minister, on Friday said that as per the feasibility report, the port is proposed to come up in between the 3 km long sea shore off Tajpur and Shankarpur.

Cost-friendly

As per the new plan, there is a requirement of dredging work of only 18.8 km compared to that of 93 km in the previous plan. The silt that would be dredged out will be used again to form a reclaim land of a dimension of 2 km in length and 2.5 km in breadth on which the major portion of the port will come up.

Thus, there is no need of any land acquisition. The excess silt will be dumped in a low vested land, which again will improve the quality of the plot. Now the project cost has come down to Rs 4,231 crores compared to that of Rs 8,000 crores only for the first phase of the previous plan.

Vessels with a parcel size of 60,000 tonnes will able to avail the port with 12 metre draft. It may be mentioned that at present, vessels only with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes can avail the Haldia Port. Moreover, there will be general cargo storage besides two coal berths and separate yards for iron ore, lime stone and containers.

No harm to tourism

Dr Mitra said the new plan will also not cause any harm to the tourism sector in the region as there is a guard wall in the coast between Shankarpur and Tajpur. The new plan is not only cost friendly, but also at the same time safety and security of the port will also be maintained.