West Bengal Cabinet Approves Construction of ‘State’s First Deep Sea Port in Tajpur’
News Desk
West Bengal Chief Miniter Mamata Banerjee on 07 Dec 2010 announced that the state cabinet has approved the construction of a deep sea port in Tajpur.
“Tajpur Deep Sea Port will be built at a cost of Rs 15,000 crore and will generate employment for 25,000 people. It will be the state’s first deep seaport,” said Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Paschim Medinipur. Trinamool Congress (TMC) in a press statement said that the port will stimulate businesses in both East and West Medinipur.
“The concentration of iron and steel industries around Kharagpur will get a boost by having a port at their doorstep for exports,” the TMC said in the statement.
“By this port iron and steel exports from Purulia, Burdwan and Bankura will get a boost. It is to be mentioned that Bengal accounts for 13 per cent of India’s iron-steel exports. Seafood exports from Medinipur will get a boost, to export to south-east Asia and Japan, benefitting lakh of fisherman and creating new jobs and new infrastructure for seafood processing,” the statement read.
Tajpur Deep Sea Port under West Bengal Maritime Board and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited (WBIDC) will be a game-changer for Bengal, the statement added.
West Bengal’s main port is Kolkata Port (including Haldia Port), but because of the shallow depth of the Hooghly river, it is impossible to anchor ocean-going vessels there. As a result, shipping growth is declining. Commodities in Kolkata and Asansol-Durgapur industrial region are instead taken to Paradip port. The future of the state’s port industry and the Haldia industrial region is uncertain and, for this reason, the state government decided to act.
The Tajpur Port is proposed to be a large deep sea port. Land for the port will be created by plowing along the sea coast. The depth of the harbor will be 15 meters, which will accommodate large ships. An 18-kilometer channel will be constructed from the sea. Six berths are to be built in the first phase followed by an additional nine berths. By separating it from the coast, beaches are not expected to be impacted. Each terminal will be multipurpose.
It is estimated that the construction will require 16 thousand crores. The first phase is 10 thousand crores and the second phase is 6 thousand crores. Construction is expected to provide 10 thousand jobs. In January 2019, the state decided to develop the port on its own, as the Centre had done “nothing” to start work on the project in the prior three years.