Orissa High Court

Cuttack, May 14: Orissa High Court today refused to modify its order imposing restrictions on signing of any further MoU or Concessionaire Agreement by the state government for development of its minor ports.

The restriction has caused a set back to the Odisha government’s bid to sign the Concessionaire Agreement as part of the MoU inked with the Aditya Birla Group for development of Chudamani port. The MoU was signed on October 22, 2009 to develop a seaport on the Build Own Operate basis at Chudamani in Bhadrak district for Rs 1,500 crore.

The court had imposed the restrictions on May 30 last year while hearing the PIL seeking intervention against signing of agreements with private developers without going through an open bidding process for developing the minor ports.

The Transparency International India (TII)’s board member Biswajit Mohanty had filed the PIL.

The Odisha government had filed a petition for allowing it to sign the pending Concessionaire Agreement in connection with the MoU signed for Chudamani port.

The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra today refused to modify the interim order and said the stay order would continue till disposal of the case.

The PIL has sought quashing of the port policy, adopted by the Odisha government, and declaring all actions taken on the basis of it as illegal.

The policy, issued by the Odisha commerce and transport department, was challenged on the ground that it had facilitated private participation in development of ports through MoUs.

The petition stated that the “MoU route” was in contravention of the national policy, which made competitive bidding mandatory for port development in the public-private partnership mode.

The Odisha government had planned development of 12 minor ports by private operators. International competitive bids were invited for Gopalpur port and one private party was selected through bidding process.

After this first selection process, the Odisha government had, however, allotted ports through direct negotiation without inviting tenders or competitive bids.

So far, three private parties have been awarded rights to develop minor ports at the Subarnareka river mouth, Chudamani and Astaranga, while eight other minor ports are in the pipeline for development.

The government said it would get revenue of about Rs 20 crore per annum after operation of Chudamani port. In this port, directly or indirectly, about 5,000 people will be employed.

The projected capacity of the port, to be developed over four years, will be three million tonnes per annum in the first phase. This will be expanded subsequently to 10 million tonnes per annum.

Chudamani port will have two berths and handle bulk cargo such as cement, aluminium, iron ore, thermal coal, limestone, gypsum and copper.

A rail corridor would connect the port from Markona station to port site, the government said.