Bhubaneswar: Defence ministry nod has paved the way for construction of a port on Subarnarekha river mouth on the Bay of Bengal in Balasore district.
"Decks have been cleared for the port project and the construction will start shortly. The defence ministry has accorded its conditional clearance to the project," commerce and transport minister Nrusingha Charan Sahu told The Telegraph.
The proposed port project is located close to the integrated test range site of the defence ministry at Chandipur near Balasore. Earlier, the defence ministry had certain objections to the project.
Sahu said land acquisition for the project was over and the state government had handed over 692.68 acres to the port developers.
"Though 961.18 acres of land is required for the port, the government has allotted 692.68 acres to the developers as about 128.8 acres of government land remains encroached. The Balasore collector has been asked to evict the encroachers," he said.
Chennai-based Creative Port Private Limited has proposed construction of an all-weather, deep-draft commercial port at Subarnarekha river mouth on build, own, operate, share and transfer (Boost) basis.
The firm had signed an MoU with the state government on December 18, 2006, to develop the project.
Later, the revenue sharing agreement was inked between the two sides on January 11, 2008. The Union ministry of environment and forests has accorded environment clearance to the proposed port project in 2012, but it hit a roadblock with the defence ministry raising objections.
"However, this hurdle is over with the defence ministry giving conditional clearance," said Sahu.
Tata Steel has signed an agreement with the Chennai firm to pick up 51 per cent equity in the port project from the original promoters Ramani Ramaswamy and Ramaswamy Rangarajan, who aretechnical entrepreneurs.
According to the revenue sharing agreement signed originally, the port would have an initial capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), which is to be raised to 40 MTPA over 10 years.
