In a new twist to Mumbai port’s battle with land sharks opposing its expansion plans and demanding prime port land for housing, NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has backed the port plans. The 134-year-old Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) is under pressure from various quarters to release land for housing. Pawar’s gesture has given a boost to the MbPT, which is poised for an ambitious makeover of its infrastructure to harbour larger ships. Other projects include a cruise terminal near Gateway of India, an offshore container terminal and deepening of the harbour wall berths.At a party meeting last week in Mumbai, Pawar launched a scathing attack on the lobby that is opposing the port’s expansion plans. He said the old port was among the four pillars on which Mumbai was built, the others being textile mills, engineering industries and the international airport. He linked the progress of Maharashtra and the country to the development of the Mumbai port. In order to find a solution to the problem, Pawar said he would soon meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ask for the release of about 5,000 acres of saltpan lands in the metropolis for housing. However, the Minister’s gesture may have some limitations. Supporting the MbPT’s move means he is opposing Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh of the Congress, and releasing saltpan land for housing purpose may invite the environmentalists’ wrath. Deshmukh, alongwith some NGOs and citizens’ groups, are against the port’s expansion on the grounds that it would add to traffic congestion. Instead, they are advocating the release of port land for the city’s use. Deshmukh has even gone to the extent of using his office to get sops for the new private port coming up at Rewas — about 10 nautical miles from Mumbai port. Recently, the Chief Minister wrote a letter to Shipping Minister T R Baalu urging him to extend the dedicated Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor of the Indian Railways to Rewas. He has also suggested that the 10 per cent royalty demanded by the MbPT from Rewas for using the former’s territorial waters was too high and should be scaled down. Pawar’s action may lead to a confrontation between the Congress and the NCP in the UPA Government and the NGOs might also raise environmental concerns over the use of salt-pan lands for development of real estate. And the MbPT, on its part, has been claiming that it has no surplus land to spare for housing and that its expansion plans would not add to traffic snarls.
