It is surprising but true. More than half-a-century has passed since Paradip Port Trust came into being but an estimated 6,000 acres of land under the port is yet to be transferred to port trust's name. The land still belongs to the State government.
In past 50 years, successive State governments and so many port chairmen/deputy chairmen have come and gone, but the situation has remained unchanged. Right now, the port does not have a chairman. The deputy chairman, Mr S. Anantha Chandra Bose, is heading the organisation.
He is trying his best to get the differences with the State government resolved and hopefully the land lease will soon be transferred to the name of the port trust.
EXPANSION PLANS
The transfer, it is felt, will help the port authorities to go ahead with the proposed expansion plans. This is not the only issue which is engaging Mr Bose's attention.
The delay in starting the work on two BOT berths, one for handling iron ore and the other for coal, has also been a matter of concern.
The concessional agreements for the two berths were signed with the Nobel Group (for the iron-ore berth) and the Essar Group (for coal) as early as 2009 but work could not be started because of the non-availability of environment clearances, given in stages. The final forest clearances, it is learnt, are awaited.
The Nobel Group reportedly developed cold feet about the project in view of the present uncertainty on the iron-ore front.
However, inquiries reveal that the port authorities are still to receive official communication in this regard from the group.
Steep targets
The iron-ore export having virtually disappeared, the port's traffic throughput in the first month of this fiscal , it is estimated, will be lower by about one million tonnes, at 4.1 mt, vis-à-vis than the same month last year.
“Last fiscal we lost seven mt of iron-ore traffic and yet Paradip port, among all major ports, has been given the steepest traffic target for the current fiscal at 63 mt as compared to 54.2 mt in 2011-12”, add the port sources. “Frankly, we do not know what is ahead of us”.