Port trust keeps hopes afloat

In spite of roadblocks that the Kolkata Port Trusts (KoPT) Diamond Harbour project is facing,KoPT Chairman AK Chanda said on Tuesday that they have not yet shelved the project.

In a seminar on the upcoming ports on the eastern coast,Chanda said the KoPT has already approached the district magistrate of South 24 Parganas to hold an all-party meeting to facilitate the transfer of land from the farmers to the trust. The 125-acre Diamond Harbour project faced a severe set back after KoPT failed to procure 43 acres owned by the Defence Ministry.

According to sources,the ministry has allotted the land to the Garden Reach Shipping Corporation,although KoPT is in talks with the ministry over the issue.

Speaking on the fate of the project,Chanda said that in 2002,ports on the eastern coast were handling 51 per cent of the total cargo. There has been a 3.4 per cent decline in cargo,of which majority of the decline has been in the east coast, he added.

With the Kolkata port suffering from sever draught problems,the Diamond Harbour port,with a depth of 9 mts,is expected to solve much of KoPTs problem. The KoPTs hinterland includes almost the whole of North-Eastern India as well as Nepal and Bhutan.

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