Financial closure for Subarnarekha port by June 2011

Chennai-based Creative Port Development Ltd which proposes to set up an all-weather port at Subarnarekha Muhan in Orissa's Balasore district, aims to achieve financial closure for the Rs 2187-crore project by June 2011.

The land acquisition process for the proposed port project is set to take off soon with notification under Section 4 (1).

"The project needs 1215.43 acres of land for the port area and 1565.93 acres for the rail corridor. Notification under Section 4 (1) will be issued soon for land acquisition”, Sanjeev Sahoo, minister for commerce and transport, Orissa told reporters.

Out of 1215.43 acres of land needed for the port area, 158 acres constitute Gochar land, 193 acres Bhudan land, 138 acres encroached land and the remaining 724 acres are free land.

A high-level meeting chaired by the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reviewed the status of ports proposed to be set up at Gopalpur and Subarnarekha.

Creative Port Development Ltd had inked MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the state government on December 18, 2006 for setting up a port with an initial capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) which would be scaled up to 40 mtpa in 10 years.

The port developer had entered into a concession agreement with the state government on January 11, 2008. 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.

Creative Port Development has submitted the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) application to the Orissa State Pollution Control Board on October 19 this year which has been forwarded to the Balasore district collector for conducting public hearing.

The Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) package for the project is under finalization.

The proposed port is set to create direct and indirect employment for around 3000 people.

Meanwhile, the Gopalpur Ports Limited (GPL), which is developing the seasonal port at Gopalpur into an all-weather port, is awaiting the environmental and Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests. The Expert Appraisal Committee of the MoEF in its 90th meeting held on August 18-20 this year, has recommended to the ministry for grant of these clearances.

Following the pull out of the Hong Kong-based Noble Group, Orissa Stevedores Ltd holds 50.5 per cent stake in GPL while Sara International holds the rest 49.5 per cent.

GPL has financial closure of Rs 848 crore for Phase-II of the port project. The total land requirement for the port is 1200 acres out of which 393.67 acres have already been handed over to GPL.

GPL has requested for waiver of stamp duty and registration fees for registration of lease and possession agreement for 393.67 acres of land already handed over to the company.

The port operations have so far generated direct employment for 4888 workers engaged in different sectors in anchorage port operations. Besides, indirect employment has been created for around 6000 people who have got jobs in quarry site, transport agencies, machinery operations, downstream repair, maintenance of equipment as well as wayside hotels and restaurants.

The port operations have generated 21,99,600 maydays since January 2007.

Presently, GPL has 33 executives and 205 non-executives. GPL has earned an income of Rs 34.6 crore from January 2007 to March 2010 and shared a revenue of Rs 51.89 lakh with the Orissa government during this period.