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The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to develop a seaport near Shankarpur in East Midnapore with private participation and at a potential investment of Rs 4,231 crore. Industries minister Amit Mitra said a feasibility study conducted by the consultancy firm Crisil zeroed in on the location, which has enough navigability to enable big ships to enter the proposed port. He added that not much dredging would be required.
“The minor port will have cargo storage berths for general (commodities), iron ore, coal and limestone…. Once implemented, the project will benefit the whole of the Northeast and east India, besides Nepal and Bhutan,” Mitra said.
The Trinamul government has scrapped a Left-era plan to build a Rs 8,500-crore port at Rasulpur, which too is along the East Midnapore coast. Once the cabinet sanctions the new proposal, the government will start the tender process to pick a private player for the development of the port.
The government will construct allied infrastructure such as roads, which will be laid at a cost of Rs 150 crore. The railways will take care of railroad connectivity. The private player will build the port.
The proposed port, which will come up between Shankarpur and Tajpur, is said to have a 12-metre draught – the difference between the riverbed and the water level during high tide. This will enable ships with a maximum of 60,000 tonnes of cargo to come here. At Haldia, the draught is 7.5 metres and ships struggle to bring in more than 22,000 tonnes.
Sources in the shipping industry said the Shankarpur location was the closest to a 10-metre-plus natural draught, which is ideal for a port. Mitra said the proposed port would require 18.8km of dredging to create a shipping channel. The proposal, according to him, would involve reclamation of land with silt that will be dredged up. The place where the port will come up is out of bounds for tourists as a wall has been built to stop people from going near the eroded coastline.
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