Paradip, March 10: The five-decade-long land dispute between the Paradip Port Trust and state government has been resolved through an amicable settlement.

The proposal for final transfer of land by the state government to the port has been lying in cold store for five decades. Claims and counter claims both by the port and state officials over the ownership of specific patches of land had triggered the standoff.

Land scattered across Sandhakuda, Bhitargarh, Bijoychandrapur and Nuasandhakuda measuring 6,285.54 acres will be transferred or alienated without any lease in favour of the PPT.

A high-power committee, formed by Orissa High Court, in a meeting held on January 31, reached an out-of-court settlement to resolve the land row. The proceedings of the meeting have come out now, said the PPT's senior assistant estate officer K. Thirumoolar.

Both the port and the government will submit a joint report regarding the settlement of the dispute to the court.

'We are expecting the land transfer to take place within a month after the technical and legal formalities,' said the port official.

'Consensus has emerged with regard to disputed land patches. Transfer of land to the port will be carried out according to the proceedings of January 31 meeting,' said Jagatsinghpur collector Satya Kumar Mallik.

The state government had asked for land within the port limits for airstrip, state government offices and institutions, places of worship, Odisha maritime academy, fisheries department block and extension of the irrigation canal.

The port trust had earlier refused to part with land citing provisions of the Major Ports Act and the Public Premises Act. That had led to the land-transfer stalemate. The disagreement dated back to May 16, 1966, when it was accorded the status of country's eighth major port under the Major Port Act, 1963.

The crux of the problem was that sizeable parts of the municipality land came under the administrative control of the Paradip Port Trust.

Dispute over the ownership of land has made the matter worse as both the PPT and the municipality authorities are laying claim and counter-claim over the land.

'Settlement of dispute is a positive development. It will now facilitate early launch of various urban development projects, lying idle due to continuing land dispute,' said additional district magistrate Rama Krushna Sahoo.