Dhamra port audit after end of 'Model Code of Conduct'

Odisha government has begun assessment of land needed

The Odisha government has decided to begin tender process for operational and financial audit of Dhamra port after the end of 'Model Code of Conduct' enforced for the twin polls in the state.

“Tender process for operational and financial audit of Dhamra port may be started after 'Model Code of Conduct' period and required funds for the purpose may be asked for in the revised Budget proposal”, D N Padhee, joint secretary (commerce & transport), Odisha. said in a letter to director, ports & inland water transport.

Meanwhile, after the grant of environment clearance to Dhamra port for its Phase-II expansion in January, the state government has begun assessment of land needed. The government had asked its ports directorate to examine land requirement for the port in accordance with the guidelines prepared by Rites Ltd.

Rites, the engineering and consultancy arm of Indian Railways, has benchmarked land need for developers of non-major port projects in Odisha. In its final report submitted to the state commerce & transport department. Rites has suggested a ‘thumb rule’ — allotting 50 acres of land for every million tonne of cargo handling capacity proposed by the developer.

The port project is implemented by Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) where both Tata Steel and L&T hold 50 per cent equity each.

DPCL authorities had requested the state government to allot 745 acres of land to facilitate second phase expansion. The port has around 300 acres of surplus land. Around 1000 acres of land were needed to implement Phase-II expansion.

Dhamra port which began commercial operations in May 2011 has been hit hard by curbs on iron ore exports.

For revenue generation, the port is shifting its focus to handling of diversified cargo like container cargo, liquid cargo, LNG (liquefied natural gas) and crude oil.DPCL had chalked out Rs  10,000-crore expansion plan that was to ramp up its berth strength to 13 from two presently and upgrade cargo handling capacity four-fold from 25 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 100 mtpa in five years.

The second phase capacity expansion would also pave the way for a five mtpa LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal to be set up within the port premises by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). The terminal to be setup at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore needed 150 acres of land. Both IOCL and DPCL had signed an MoU for the project. Presently, the port with two berths, is capable of handling 12 million tonne of imported dry bulk cargo and 13 million tonne of dry bulk cargo for exports.