Calcutta, July 25: The Bengal government’s efforts to build a deep-sea port in the state suffered a setback today with a prospective developer finding a more suitable location in Orissa.

Sajjan Jindal said: “We had looked at locations near Digha. But there were two problems — silting and cyclonic weather. These will push up maintenance costs and make it unviable.”

His JSW Group has zeroed in on a spot bordering Bengal, in the mouth of the Subarnarekha. The Rs 1,500-crore port would be 250km from his proposed steel plant in Salboni, West Midnapore.

Jindal wants the port to import coal and iron ore and ship out semi-finished steel.

Industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen, however, said Jindal’s pullout was not a worry for Bengal. “It was not their primary project. When deep-sea port comes up (in Bengal), the Jindals will also use it. We are going ahead with the port plan,” he said.

Jindal, however, had more bad news for Bengal. The Salboni plant, he announced, would have a 3-million-tonne capacity in the first phase, instead of the 6mt considered earlier.

The Telegraph had earlier reported that JSW Steel might scale down the project because of the volatile financial market worldwide.

The silver lining is that work on the Salboni project is set to begin. “Construction will begin in the first week of November. The plant will go on stream in 2011-12,” Jindal said.. When all the phases are completed, the plant will have a capacity of 10 million tonnes.

He may have dropped the port plan, but Jindal today showed interest in developing a power plant for commercial generation. “If allowed, we can do 3,000-4,000MW… the state has huge potential,” he said.

The JSW Group vice-chairman took up the issue with the chief minister when he met him this afternoon. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has agreed to look into the proposal.