Cabinet nod for maritime board

The Orissa government has decided to form a maritime board to oversee the management and operations of all the existing as well as upcoming minor ports in the state.

The 12-member maritime board will be headed by the state minister for commerce and transport. The secretary, commerce and transport department will be the chief executive officer of the board with the secretaries of industries, water resources, law and forest and environment departments as the members.

Besides, the board will have two experts in the filed of shipping, navigation and fisheries as its members.

The decision to constitute the maritime board was taken at the Cabinet meeting held last evening.

Addressing reporters after the review meeting, the state chief secretary, T K Mishra said, “Orissa will be the fourth state after Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to have a maritime board. The Directorate of Ports will be merged with the maritime board. The Orissa Port Trust Act of 1962 will be repealed and a new Act called the Orissa Maritime Board will come into force for setting up the board.”

The onus will be on the maritime board to formulate a policy for development of ports and inland waterways in the state. The board will act as the single window facilitator for the upcoming ports and will also look into security and defence issues. Moreover, the board will also carry out the necessary surveys and techno-economic feasibility studies for the upcoming ports.

Besides, the board, which will be an autonomous body, will also fix the rate for transshipment and stevedoring.

The formation of the maritime board assumes significance as the state has received many proposals for establishment of ports in locations like Kirtania, Chudamani, Dhamara, Bichitrapur and Barunei Muhan to name a few.

Out of all the port projects on the pipeline, the Dhamara port would be the first to resume operations. It has been estimated that the maritime board would earn a revenue of Rs 15 per tonne of cargo handled by this port.

The state Cabinet has also decided to provide bank guarantee to the Orissa State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) to enable it to avail a bank loan of Rs 20 crore for procurement of 100 buses that would run in and around the city.

The OSRTC has a fleet of 275 buses at present out of which 44 per cent of the buses are over aged and it has been decided to expand the corporation's fleet to 500.