Orissa High Court

Cuttack, May 5: Orissa High Court today issued notices to the Centre and the Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) on the revised limit of the Calcutta port that extends into Orissa’s territory.

The notices were issued on a PIL seeking quashing of the November 19, 2010, notification allowing the CPT to extend its limit into the already notified limits of Bichitrapur, the Subarnarekha mouth, Bahabalpur, Inchudi, Chandipur, Chudamani and Dhamra ports of Orissa. The Keonjhar Nava Nirman Parishad (KNNP) secretary Dillip Kumar Mohapatra had filed the PIL.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra fixed June 21 for hearing, while allowing intervention petitions filed by the CPT and the Dhamra Port.

“Meanwhile, the secretary department of shipping and the CPT are directed not to precipitate the matter,” the court said taking note of central government counsel Saktidhar Das’ submission that a process of consultation was on between the chief minister and Union minister for shipping.

Petitioner counsel Narsingh Mishra said the PIL was concerned with the interest of the people of Orissa. With the Centre allowing the CPT to extend its limit 200km south of Haldia, it is set to block the coast of north Orissa where the seven new ports are in different stages of development.

Moreover, to add a few extra million tones to Calcutta port’s capacity, the Centre is jeopardising the development of seven Orissa ports, each of which can handle much larger quantity of cargo when completed, the PIL contends.

“While the extended limits of the CPT will block access of vessels to Dhamara port, all other ports which, planned towards its north, will face a similar problem. Apart from choking them, the CPT’s new limits also prevent Orissa’s proposed ports from future expansion and development by encroaching into their jurisdiction,” the PIL contended.

“While there will be an annual revenue loss of Rs 684 crore, employment of 9,750 persons will be affected,” the petitioner said in an additional affidavit today.

CPT counsel S.K. Kapur, on the other hand, said the PIL challenging the notification extending the limits of navigable channel of the Calcutta port under provision of the Indian Port Act, 1908, was not maintainable.

The CPT had, in its intervention petition, justified the revised limits saying: “The extent of limit of the Calcutta port not only became necessary in view of administrative exigency, but also required for the purpose of business as well.”

“The north east area being land locked, the immediate neighbours such as, Bhutan and Nepal, also depend on the port for their shipping business,” the CPT contended.

According to the KNMP’s petition, in the Maritime Agenda 2010-20, the Centre had recognised the need for development of non-major ports in Orissa. Moreover, it was clearly stipulated in the agenda that the east coast ports were expected to handle over 75 per cent of future imports with the ports in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh accounting for much of the traffic owing to steel-making capacity being largely located in this region.

“After recognition of such need and future projection, extension of jurisdiction of the Calcutta port is wholly unjustified, mala fide and illegal being vitiated with arbitrariness and abuse of power by discriminatory action,” the petition stated.