New Delhi, Nov. 8: The Centre may invest up to Rs 7,000 crore for setting up a deep-sea port in Bengal, shipping minister T.R. Baalu said today.

A senior official said the ministry has started the process to choose consultants to carry out a detailed study of the Bengal coastline to identify a suitable spot for the port.

Eight leading consultancy firms, including those from the US, Canada and the UK, made presentations last week and the contract for carrying out the study would be awarded soon, the official added.

The ministry expects to retain the consultants for setting up the port as well.

The experts will be looking for a site where the draft — the depth of water a ship draws, especially when loaded — is at least 17 metres so that large vessels can dock. “The port would have a draft that would be at least twice as deep as the Haldia port,” the official said.

Suitable road and rail connectivity would also be provided to the port.

Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September and sought his help in expediting the proposal for the deep-sea port. Bhattacharjee pointed out to Singh that the proposal had been lying with the Planning Commission for a long time, apparently stuck in red tape, and urged him to take up the matter with commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The proposal for the deep-sea port was announced in finance minister P. Chidambaram’s budget speech, though the shipping ministry had formulated it earlier. Baalu’s ministry wanted a study to find a suitable site on the Bengal coast as the draft in Haldia and Calcutta was not deep enough for big ships.