Bengal to take up port projects post-elections

The West Bengal government will take up its two port projects on the Hooghly channel post-elections and is hoping to start work within this year, said commerce and industry secretary, Sabyasachi Sen.

The state government has planned two port — one container terminal at Kulpi, around 55 kilometre from Kolkata, and the other a deep water port in the Hooghly river estuary.

“We had a meeting with the chief secretary recently and both the projects are likely to move ahead after the elections are over. Work could start within this year,” Sen said.

The deep water port will have a depth of 21 metre and will enable bulk carriers to offload cargo for the state’s petrochemical hub project on Nayachar island near Haldia. The Rs 10,000 crore project would take around six years to build.

“The PCPIR developer would also build this port as it is part of the chemical hub project. It is not possible to run a refinery at Nayachar without a dedicated deep draft port,” Sen told Business Standard.

The Denmark Hydraulic Institute, a consultancy firm on ports, has done a study on the project and given its nod. The state government has chosen New Kolkata International Development (NKID), a special purpose vehicle, promoted by the Salim group of Indonesia, Universal Success group and Unitech to develop the chemical hub project. “NKID is in the process of getting a technical feasibility study done by L&T Ramboll,” Sen said. Sources in the industry department, however, indicated that L&T could also build the port. Industry sources said, Bengal needed a deep water port as it was facing problems with the draft in the channel. Dredging costs are moving up by the day.

As for the Rs 1,200 crore container terminal and special economic zone in Kulpi,the agreement between the state government and the Kolkata Port Trust on pilot sharing and dredging related issues is yet to be signed.