Chief minister Naveen Patnaik attends a meeting on the review of port at the state secretariat in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 2: A team of experts from IIT, Madras, will conduct a study on the technical feasibility of three upcoming ports at Inchdui, Chandipur and Chudamani. The Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) has raised objections to the setting up of these three ports.

DRDO officials believe that these projects would be a potential threat to its defence activities on the Bay of Bengal and to its defence establishment at Balasore and Wheeler Island in Bhadrak district.

Despite the state government’s repeated pleas, the DRDO is yet to give a clearance to the projects. On July 21, the matter was taken up with the DRDO chief, V.K. Saraswat, when he met the chief minister Naveen Patnaik in the capital.

Saraswat had come to the state to seek the government’s permission to allow the DRDO to use the coastline for carrying out seaward artillery practice and manoeuvres.

Commerce and transport secretary Gagan Kumar Dhal said: “The team, which is expected to be in Orissa next week, will visit the proposed sites and prepare a detailed report. Later, the report will be placed before the authorities. We have already intimated our concern to DRDO and have taken up the issue at the highest-level.”

At a meeting today, the chief minister reviewed the progress made with various upcoming ports. He was told that work at Dhamra port had already been completed. The state has so far identified 14 sites to set up ports.

The work at Dhamra port was completed in May at a cost of Rs 3,239 crore. So far, 21 ships, including the first super-cape size vessels of eastern India, had entered the port and unloaded goods. Now 784 people have been employed by the company directly and another 2,000 people have been engaged in indirect work.

Transport secretary Dhal said: “The National Highway Authority of India has approved a proposal to connect all the proposed ports with road networks with an investment of Rs 1,200 crore.”

A fish jetty would be set up near Gopalpur port and 5,000 fishermen would be issued identity cards. This will generate employment opportunity for 10,888 people in just Gopalpur port. While 4,888 people will be absorbed directly, 6,000 people will be absorbed under the indirect category.

Construction at Astarang, Chudamani and Jatadhari ports has already started. Now the state government is preparing feasibility reports for Bahabalpur, Badamuhana, Bichitrapur, Palur, Balaharchandi, Barunei river mouth and Chandipur.