Orissa may take legal action over revision of Kolkata port's limits

Peeved over the arbitrarily revised limits of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), covering an area of 28646 sq km in the Bay of Bengal and posing a threat to the upcoming minor ports in North Orissa, the state government is mulling to take legal recourse if the Centre fails to take appropriate action the matter.

"We have shot off a strong letter to the Centre on the issue of extension of limits of KoPT. If the Centre fails to respond and take appropriate action, we may move court over the issue”, B K Patnaik, the state Chief Secretary told reporters here.

Incidentally, the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will call on the Union minister for shipping G K Vasan on Wednesday to apprise him on the issue.

"I will meet the Union minister for shipping on Wednesday and take up the issue of the extension of the port limits of the Kolkata Port which has come right up to the Dhamara port. This is certainly not justified and not fair for Orissa”, he said.

Official sources said that the matter pertaining to the arbitrarily revised limits of KoPT came to their notice 15-20 days back and a letter was shot off to the Union shipping secretary K Mohandas on January 20.

Earlier, the KoPT authorities had requested for a transshipment facility near the Dhamara port which was rebuffed by the Orissa government.

The revised limits of KoPT extends more than 200 km south of Haldia into the Bay of Bengal covering an area of 28646 sq km. Blocking the entire coast of North Orissa where seven ports are being developed. The revised limits effectively block the access to Dhamara port which is already developed and the access to all future ports north of Dhamara including Chudamani, Chandipur, Inchudi, Subarnarekha mouth, Bichitrapur and Bahabalpur. It may be noted that the Orissa government has already signed MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) and concession agreement for the ports proposed at Chudamani and Subarnarekha mouth respectively.

The Indian Ports Act, 1908 empowers the appropriate government to fix the limits of the ports. The Orissa government has accordingly fixed the limits of non-major ports located in Orissa and retains its rights to revise its limits from time to time. The extended limits of KoPT clearly encroaches into the already notified limits of the seven minor ports proposed in North Orissa and to some extent the Dhamara port.

The notification by overtly extending the limits of KoPT effectively forecloses the future expansion and development of Dhamara and other ports of North Orissa planned and under progress. Even the borrow area for sand required for reclamation of such ports which are a few km away would now fall in the limits of KoPT.

The Orissa government has pointed out it has not been consulted before the issue of such a notification. The state government has stated that the unilateral action of KoPT is violative of the federal structure of the country and may lead to avoidable bitterness between the governments of Orissa and West Bengal.

It has further argued that the revised notification militates against the very spirit of the Maritime Development Policy which seeks to promote development of new ports on the PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode. Terming the notification as highly partisan and irrational, the state government has stated that it forecloses the orderly development of modern deep ports along the coast of the country.