Baliapal: Environmentalists, RTI activists and activists of Bhitamati Surakhya Committee strongly opposed the Subarnarekha port coming up near Chaumukh at Subarnarekha river mouth in Balasore district, Saturday.
Hundreds of people from nearby villages and people to be affected by the port project took out a rally and staged protests at Baliapal tehsil.
Speaking at the meeting, Arun Jena, the convener of Bhitamati Surakhya Committee, accused the administration of suppressing the voice of people against the company.
He alleged that the administration had allowed them to use a public address system at the meeting.
Scribe Rabi Das, RTI activist Pradip Pradhan, environmentalist Prafulla Samantray, ex-MLA of Chhatrapur Radhkrushna Sethi and many people’s representatives alleged that the state government has been trying to hand over the fertile land on the coast to a company and it will kill the livelihood of people.
“Local people will be reduced to beggars while there was a bid in the past to set up a military base here. But former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik and others had scuttled the efforts,” they said.
They said that due to port project, railway line and port-based industries, people will lose their land at Chaumukh, Dagara, Betagadia, Panchupalli, Ratei and Nuagan.
The protestors submitted a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister through the additional tehsildar.
After Dhamra and Gopalpur ports, this port will be the third one to be developed by the state government. It may be noted here that Chief Ninister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for the port project February 13, 2019.
The port is being jointly developed by the state government and Tata Steel with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. The project is expected generate employment opportunities for around 12,000 people.
The state government has already provided 692 acres for the port of the total required area of 962 acres while Tata Steel will invest money for the project.
Its initial cargo handling capacity was put at 25 mtpa while the capacity can be expanded up to 80 mtpa. The port project would be a great boost for Tata Steel’s Jamshedpur steel mill.
Subarnarekha is one of the biggest ports in eastern India. It is expected to cater for various cargo services to industries in Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and trans-border countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and others in South East Asia.
The state government signed an MoU with Chennai-based Creative Port Development Private Limited (CPDPL) for development of the port in December 2006. Tata Steel has already acquired majority stake in CPDPL, it will develop the port.
