Meena outlines KoPT's revival strategy

The new chairman of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), M L Meena, having taken over the position that has remained vacant for almost a year, has outlined a three-pronged approach to revive West Bengal's premier maritime facility that has been beleaguered by problems in recent months.

To start with, the chronic draught problem Haldia port, which is administered by KoPT, Meena said, would be addressed through proper observation of dredging that is undertaken by the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI). “I know the issues very well. Haldia port has a serious draught crisis that has brought down traffic by 10 million tonnes. I have already spoken to the DCI chairman on the matter. Monitoring is essential if there has to be effective dredging. So far, there was practically no monitoring being done,” he said.

Relations between the DCI and KoPT has been frayed in the past few months as neither is willing to accepted responsibility of the fall in depth of critical navigational channels that lead into Haldia port.

Incidentally, Meena had previously been the deputy chairman of the Haldia dock complex for four years, between 2002-2006.

Secondly, there is an intention to create alternate port facilities at three different locations: Salukhali, Sagar and Diamond Harbour. While all three have been on the KoPT's radar, Meena admitted, not much progress has been made lately.

For the Diamond Harbour project, involving the establishment of a container terminal, that has been mired by the reluctance of the Defence authorities to part with the requisite land, Meena said that an internal deadline of a month has been made for the issue to be resolved within. “We are in discussions with the Defence authorities. But if they do not accept (our proposal), we will acquire land nearby ourselves,” he said.

The status of the Salukhali project would be reviewed shortly, he added.

Thirdly, the development of inland water transport in the region would be a trust area of the KoPT, Meena said. Alluding to a proposal mooted by the country's largest thermal power generator, NTPC, and the IWAI (Inland Waterways Authority of India) to use waterways for transporting coal, which had not materialised due to infrastructural and other constraints, he said that barge-based transshipment solutions would be seriously looked into.

“We could have a barge loading facility at Haldia and another at Jangipur, which will solve the transportation problem. This region has the potential to be turned into an inland waterways hub,” Meena explained.