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The government has extended the water limits of the Paradip Port Trust to Kanika Sands area for setting up of the transloading facilities under the directions of the Supreme Court. The port trust is planning to put a bid for private companies to operate the transloader - which will transfer shipment from one mode of transportation to another.
This would bring in more revenue to the port though the exact quantum of business would depend on the capacity and bid quotations. Earlier in May, the Supreme Court had given a nod to this arrangement to put an end to the dispute between the Kolkata Port and Odisha government over territorial waters.
The Kolkata Port due to limited draft on its port was carrying such transloading activity for eight months in Sand Heads in the Bay of Bengal within its own water limits. From May to September, it was relocating in an area near to Orissa, since the waters turn choppy during that period and the transloader has to be sheltered and removed from Sand Heads. However, with Paradip Port now the official operator, the facility will be available all the year round.
The privately-operated Dhamra port in Orissa had raised objection to the transloading operations being carried out in the high seas by the Kolkata Port on grounds that it was within its port limits. With the new solution now accepted by all the involved parties, the Paradip Port would be authorized to carry out transloading operations at the berth on Kanika Sands and also carry out conservation work for a nominal charge. The facility can be used by Kolkata port or the neighbouring non-major ports like Dhamra which has recently been taken over by the Ahmedabad-based Adani group.
The Odisha government would also initiate steps to re-notify the port limits of the Bahabalpur Port - a non-major port which comes under state's jurisdiction so that the transloading facility (transloading is the process of transferring a shipment from one mode of transportation to another) can function without any further hurdle.
The state government had signed an exclusivity agreement with the Dhamra port, according to which no port facility could be created within 25 km. The law ministry had said on this matter that all coastal waters belong to the central government and a state government has no jurisdiction over the water that surrounds its land.
