'Upcoming Sagar Island port future of eastern states'

The upcoming port in Sagar Island, to be set-up with an investment of Rs.12,000 crore, is the future of handling maritime cargo in the country's eastern states, an official said on Tuesday.

"The Sagar Island port is the future of ports in the east," chairman of Kolkata Port Trust R.P.S. Kahlon said.

After the upcoming port is commissioned, the ports of Kolkata and Haldia will become barge-handling ports, while the first point of contact for the cargo vessels will be the one on the island in West Bengal.

Sagar Island, lying on the Ganges delta in the continental shelf of Bay of Bengal, is 100 km south of the eastern metropolis.

The Kolkata Dock System here, which has maintained a healthy performance in the last five years despite numerous odds, has handled 3,000 cargo ships and vessels registering 17 percent container growth.

However, its parcel size remains small. Kahlon said Kolkata Port Trust presently has 7,000 active workers while it caters to 30,000 pensioners.