KOLKATA: The Centre will start work on the much talked about Sagar Port in Bengal soon. This is one of the three new major ports coming up in the country. It is also planning to take up a major dredging activity at Sagar next year to improve the draft of the proposed port. This was disclosed in the city by Union minister for shipping and transport Nitin Gadkari at an interactive session with MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday .
Gadkari pointed out that the current draft of the proposed major port at Sagar is 9.5 metres which will be increased to 13.5 metres by dredging. This, according to him, will be good enough for big vessels.
According to him, the shipping ministry is working with IIT Chennai for a new dredging technology that will bring down the dredging cost by 50%. “We will apply the technology for Sagar port. This will reduce the dredging cost of Kolkata port from Rs 450 crore to Rs 200 crore,” he said. Incidentally, the Centre is ting up a special purpose setting up a special purpose vehicle with West Bengal government for the Sagar port. The state has already committed 26% stake in Sagar port. The total investment in Sagar is Rs 10,000 crore. Besides Sagar, Gadkari added that the work for the proposed inland waterways from Varanasi to Haldia would start in next few months. “The 1,620-kilometre waterways will start from Varanasi and will go through Sahebganj in Jharkhand to Haldia,” he added.Gadkari pointed out that this waterways can be used to transport coal. “This will help reduce power cost,” he added.
“In order to compete in ternationally we have to strengthen waterways. In China, 47% of transport is through waterways while in India it is only 4%. This is the cheapest form of transport,” he added.
The Centre is planning to develop waterways on 111riv ers. Commenting on the per formance of the major ports Gadkari said that all the 12 major ports and three corpo rations under the ministry are doing well. “For the firs time in the history the 12 ma jor ports and three corpora tions are going to make Rs 6,000-crore profit this fiscal,” he said.
