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Experts bat for ports by Ashutosh Mishra and Subhashish Mohanty

Environmentalists may be against the state government’s proposal to set up new ports along the coast, but experts feel that the state needs these facilities badly to make the most of the cargo boom expected in the next 10 years.

They have also extended support to chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s campaign against the Centre’s bid to restrict the powers of coastal states and union territories with regard to determining the jurisdiction of ports developed by them.

“We certainly need more ports considering the fact that the state will be generating an additional cargo of 200 million tonne per year in the next 10 years because of industrial growth. We cannot let go off this opportunity,” said Subrat Kumar Rout, director, ports and inland water transport.

At present, bulk cargo is handled by Paradip port that is controlled by the Union shipping ministry. “This cargo is between 60 and 70 million tonne a year. But the situation is going to change with state’s own industries likely to generate much more exportable cargo in the near future. That apart, Orissa can also cater to the needs of landlocked neighbouring states such Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar which need the sea route to do business,” said Rout.

While Jharkhand was the first state to evince interest in setting up a port in Orissa in 2006, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar sought Naveen’s help in this regard during the Planning Commission’s consultation meeting in Patna last May. Moreeover, the Orissa government has signed 49 MoUs for setting up steel plants with an annual production capacity of over 56 million tonne a year. Of these, 29 plants have already started partial production.

“Our own plants will be generating a lot of material. Then we also have to take into account the fact that a lot of industrial activity is taking place in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh with mainly metal and coal-based industries coming up.

This is a tremendous opportunity but we cannot take full advantage of this without setting up new ports. We need to have a comprehensive study and business plan in this regard. In fact, we are contemplating one,” said Rout.

Former chief construction engineer of Gopalpur port D.P. Pati agreed that Orissa, one of the four states on the eastern coast of India, stood to gain by constructing more ports. “We have a vast mineral-rich hinterland to serve,” said Pati, admitting that too many ports in close vicinity of one another might at times affect competition. But he also cited the example of Gujarat where clusters of ports were doing pretty well because of the high volume of business.

Orissa, which has a port in Paradip and two more at Dhamra and Gopalpur, needs to seize the opportunity, feel experts. The state government has identified 12 more sites for construction of ports and concession agreements have already been signed for projects at two of these places.

Of the remaining 10, the development of sites at Barunei river mouth in Kendrapara district and Chandipur in Balasore remains doubtful as the first one is close to the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary made famous by the endangered Olive Ridley turtles and the second falls in the vicinity of a vital defence installation.

Environmentalist Biswajit Mohanty argued against so many ports coming up in such proximity and warned that they would adversely impact not only marine fauna such as turtles and dolphins but also the livelihood of fishermen. “There seems to be no immediate requirement for so many ports,” he said.

However, such views have been summarily rejected by experts such as Rout who feel that the non-controversial port sites ought to be developed immediately because they think there lies the future of the state.

SITES IDENTIFIED FOR PORTS

1. Bichitrapur (Balasore) 2. Subarnrekha Muhan (Balasore), 3. Bahabalpur (Balasore) 4. Chandipur (Balasore) 5. Inchudi (Balasore), 6.Chudamani (Bhadrak), 7.Barunei Muhan (Kendrapara), 8. Jatadhar Muhan (Jagatsinghpur), 9. Astrang (Puri), 10. Baliharichandi (Puri), 11. Palur (Ganjam), 12. Bahuda Muhan (Ganjam)