Bhubaneswar: The state government Saturday informed the Assembly that it had received approval from the defence ministry to go ahead with the Subarnarekha project.
The port was facing security and land acquisition hurdles. However, Commerce and Transport Minister Nrusingha Sahoo, in his reply to the queries raised by members during question hour, said, “The Union defence ministry has given its approval to the construction of the non-major port on Subarnarekha banks in Balasore in the last week of this August.”
“We have also received environment clearance (EC) for the project,” he added.
He further said the state government has acquired 692.68 acres at Subarnarekha. A total of 961 acres is required for the project, he said. According to sources, 108 acres identified land for the project is facing encroachment hurdles.
The state government inked a pact with the Creative Port Development Private Limited and agreed to the formation of a special purpose vehicle – Subarnarekha Port Private Limited to develop the port project.
The minister said that the state government had formulated a port policy in 2004 and on the basis of the policy, it has identified 13 locations such as Bichitrapur, Subarnarekha banks, Bahabalpur, Chandipur and Inchudi in Balasore, Chudamani and Dhamara in Bhadrak, Jatadhar bank in Jagatsinghpur, Astaranga and Baliharichandi in Puri and Palur, Gopalpur and Bahuda in Ganjam for construction of 13 non-major ports.
Apart from Subarnarekha, the state government has signed MoUs with companies for the development of ports at Gopalpur, Dhamara and Astarang.
The minister said Dhamara port has been made functional since 2011. While one berth is functioning in the port, the Gopalpur Ports Limited has plans for construction of three more berths by the end of this year.
He said the land acquisition process is on for Astarang port project for which the state government has already signed an MoU with Nabyug Engineering Company Limited.
Likewise, the minister said that in Chudamani project, the MoU signing process has remained incomplete due to legal issues. Earlier, the government had inked a pact with Aditya Birla Group for construction of a port. However, the firm withdrew its plan and the MoU was scrapped, he said.
