BHUBANESWAR: Land acquisition being a major problem in the way of developing ports along Odisha coast, the State Government on Saturday directed district Collectors to expedite the process of land acquisition and the project proponents to obtain necessary clearances for starting ground works.
Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi reviewed the progress of land acquisition and environmental clearance of two ports proposed at Kirtania in Balasore district and Astaranga in Puri district at a high level meeting here.
While Kirtania port on the confluence of river Subarnarekha will be developed by Chennai-based Creative Port Development Private Limited (CPDPL), Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL) has signed an MoU with the State for the proposed port at Astaranga.The State Government has planned to hand over about 700 acres of land for the Kirtania port in the first phase, official sources said.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence had raised objections to the Subarnarekha project on certain grounds. However, later the Ministry gave a clearance for development of the port to be set up on build, own, operate, share and transfer (BOOST) model. The port required about 1200 acres of land.
As land acquisition for Astaranga port is facing legal hurdles with several cases pending in Orissa High Court, the meeting decided to speed up the process of identifying government land. The project proponents were asked to obtain environmental clearance for the ports. The Chief Secretary further directed department concerned to start the process for getting necessary permissions for rail and road corridors for the ports.
Of the 13 ports proposed by the State Government, except for Dhamra and Gopalpur ports, no significant development has taken place for other projects. The State Government has planned to set up five ports in Balasore district alone and one at Chudamani in Bharak district. The Chief Secretary directed Dhamra Port, a fully-owned subsidiary of Adani Port and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ), to start container operation by March 2018. The State Government has provided 763 acres of land to the port authority under second phase expansion.Padhi further directed the port authority to finalise the third phase expansion including the development of an airstrip.