Paradip port town. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Oct. 17: Paradip Port Trust (PPT) authorities have decided to seek technical experts’ views for relocation of the port township, so that the proposed expansion projects of the major port are not constrained by land crunch.

With paucity of land hindering the future expansion plans, the port authorities are trying to shift the civil township to an alternative and suitable location. Land reclaimed from the existing township would come handy to expand the core and prohibited area of the port.

As major expansion projects are now under way to scale up capacity of the Paradip port from the present 76 million tonnes per annum to 133 million tonnes per annum by 2015, the port needs more land to refurbish its infrastructure.

“Moreover, we are laying emphasis on improving civic amenities for the local residents and other users and dependants. For greater convenience of public, employees and those depending on the port township for livelihood, we have drawn up a comprehensive plan to expand core area of the port. At the same time, plans are afoot to shift the township. PPT would soon seek views of the technical experts to ensure that expansion programme faces no hurdles,” port trust chairman G. Jagannath Rao told reporters.

Till the relocation plan got materialised, PPT would revamp the existing public utility projects such as marketplaces, roads and public parks in the civil township, he said.

Earlier, the authorities had requested the Orissa government for allotment of over 600 acres of suitable land for relocation of the township to meet with increase in cargo-handling activity. Unless the township that adjoins the port is shifted somewhere else, an expansion programme is not practicable, said official sources.

PPT officials said the need for the required land has been submitted with the Orissa revenue administration and the Jagatsinghpur district administration.

The process of land acquisition on the periphery of the port civil township has begun. “We have served notices under sections of the Orissa Land Acquisition Act to the landowners at Pratappur and Fatehpur villages under Kujang tehsil of Jagatsinghpur district. We have plans to acquire 400 acres. Separate notices under sections 4 (1) and 9 (3) of the Orissa Land Acquisition Act have been served to the landowners. Under the act, they have been asked to register objections, if any, to the land acquisition,” said special land acquisition officer Nrusingha Charan Swain.