Techno-economic study on for Bichitrapur port

The govt is likely to take a call on the establishment of a port at Bichitrapur in Balasore district

The Odisha government will take a call on establishment of a port at Bichitrapur in Balasore district after completion of an ongoing techno-economic feasibility study (TEFS).

"The TEFS is ongoing for the port project proposed at Bichitrapur. If we get a positive report, we will go ahead with port development”, said commerce & transport minister Subrat Tarai in the state assembly.

BJD MLA from Bhograi (Balasore) Ananta Das sought to know the reason for lack of decision on the Bichitrapur port project.

A captive deep-sea port proposed at Bichitrapur in Balasore district by Jindal Infrastructure Ltd, a JSW Group company, had run into rough weather with concerns deepening over the threat posed to the Subarnarekha river mouth.

The fact that another commercial port proposed by Creative Port Development Ltd at Kirtania (Subarnarekha river mouth) located within 10-km radius of Bichitrapur, has cast doubts over the feasibility of building two ports simultaneously.

The Bichitrapur port had not made any headway after JSW Infrastructure announced to set up a Rs 2,238-crore captive deep sea port at that location, targeting cargo throughput of 10 million tonne per annum (mtpa) in the first phase.

The company was to invest Rs 550 crore in the first phase which was scheduled for commissioning by 2013. The port's cargo handling was projected to reach 20 mtpa in the second phase set to be operational by 2013 and 45 mtpa by 2020.

On the Subarnarekha project, Tarai said, “We had signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Creative Port Development Ltd for developing a minor port at Subarnarekha on December 18, 2006. The concession agreement for the port was signed on January 11, 2008. We have already acquired 670 acres for the port project and efforts are on to hand over the acquired land to the developer.”

The port project proposed at Subarnarekha needs 1,215.43 acres of land for the port area and 1,565.93 acres for the rail corridor. Out of 1215.43 acres of land needed for the port area, 158 acres constitute Gochar land, 193 acres Bhudan land, 138 acres of encroached land and the remaining 724 acres being free land.

Besides the major port at Paradip, the state government had identified 13 potential sites along the 480 km Odisha coast to develop non-major ports.