The West Bengal government is preparing to award a contract by next year to develop a deep sea port at Tajpur, which is 180 km from Kolkata and 10 km from Digha.
The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), a state nodal agency in port development, has invited fresh bids for the development of a greenfield private deep sea port at Tajpur in the state’s East Medinipur district.
Initially, the state government wanted the port to be developed with the help of the Centre. However, the Center did not show interest in building a deep sea port at Tajpur and then the state government decided to go it alone and build a greenfield port there.
To make the Tajpur port proposal attractive to interested bidders, the government offered a portion of 1,000 acres that is “encumbrance-free”. A senior industry department official said, “This became possible after the land swap between West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL). This is now a big boost and an attractive proposition for the global bidding.”
However, the developer will have to take at least three important approvals from the Centre. The developer will have to use environment clearance, rail connectivity and river channel to bring the vessels that the river channel belongs to the Calcutta port which is under the Ministry of Shipping.
As per the guidelines laid down by the agency, the developer will be given the flexibility to design the port and fix the tariff. Earlier, the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) and DP World of Dubai had shown interest in the bidding exercise. “This time around we are expecting more global port developers like Adani and many others to show interest,” the official said.
The government announced that the last date for submission of bids is December 20. Earlier, a pre-bid meeting would be held on November 12 and the bid submission process would start from November 22.
However, developing a greenfield port is always a challenge and in case of a location like Tajpur, it is a bigger challenge. At Tajpur, the natural deep draft is not available on the coast and it is available only at a distance of 20 km under the sea. So, the developer may have to build a port inside the sea. The developer could also build a channel that would take large ships to shore. In case of channel creation, the recurring cost for this would be
Channel maintenance and dredging.
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