The Hindu Business Line : Port on Sagar Island

Known for its annual congregation of pilgrims, Sagar Island, near Kolkata, is the ideal site for a new port that will take the pressure off the region's existing dock systems.

Santanu Sanyal

While presenting the Union Budget for 2010-11 on Friday, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, proposed to provide funds “in due course” to develop a port project at Sagar Island in West Bengal, recognising the need for an alternative port facility in the state.

The proposal to develop full-fledged port facilities at Sagar Island is, however, not new; it has been hanging fire for the past eight years or so, with little progress so far.

As early as 2002, the proposal was first mooted by Kolkata Port Trust to the Shipping Ministry, suggesting the possibility of creating cargo handling facilities, complete with several berths and jetties at Sagar Island. The available draft at Sagar at that time was 10 metres, which could be raised to 12 metres through dredging, it was pointed out. In other words, the kind of problems that the Kolkata Dock System and Haldia dock faced due to draft restriction in the Hooghly river would be much less at Sagar Island, it was felt.

In 2004, the Ministry sent the proposal to the Department of Economic Affairs, which in 2005 took it up with the Government of Japan for probable funding. It was decided that Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would consider funding the preparation of a detailed project report (DPR). JICA asked Japan's Overseas Coastal Development Institute to examine the proposal. The institute favoured preparation of a DPR.

Pushed to backburner

However, the matter did not progress after that, the reason being that in 2006 the project was reportedly not included in the list identified for Japanese assistance. Also, around the same time, the West Bengal Government suggested to the Union Government to examine the scope for a deep-sea port off the West Bengal coast. In fact, a team led by the West Bengal Minister for Commerce & Industry visited the Yangshan deep-sea port near Shanghai in China and was convinced that something similar could also be set up in the State.

Responding to the West Bengal Government's request, the Union Government allocated fund for the preparation of DPR for a deep-sea port off West Bengal coast and, accordingly, the Shipping Ministry invited bids from international consultants.

The Ministry did receive several bids but the DPR was not eventually prepared. For whatever reasons, the ball was subsequently pushed back into the court of West Government, which is still sitting on it. As a cumulative effect of all this, the proposal for a port in Sagar Island was shoved on to the back-burner.

The proposal was revived again in 2009 and, in September, Kolkata Port Trust invited Expressions of Interest and 15 firms responded to it. However, several issues need be resolved before the proposed project can hope to take off. First, the acquisition of land. An estimated 2,500 acres will be needed on the island to set up an impounded dock with eight to 10 berths.

Next, the preparation of the DPR and, finally, which is also very critical for the project, ensuring connectivity between the Sagar Island and the mainland.

Connectivity to mainland

Hopefully, the Union Finance Minister's promised fund will expedite the preparation of a DPR. As for connectivity, the West Bengal Government, through the Sunderban Development Board, has already submitted a proposal to the Union Government for assistance for a Rs 550-crore scheme for constructing a five-km long three-lane road across the waterway to connect Kachuberia in Sagar Island with Lot Number 8, near Diamond Harbour, in the mainland. But the issue of acquisition of land, it is felt, cannot be resolved so easily, particularly in the present volatile political situation in the State.

Cargo handling at Sagar Island by way of lighterage operations has been in force in for more than three decades now and the various types of cargoes handled there include foodgrains, fertilisers, log, iron ore and other items (with the possibility of coal being handled there soon) and the throughput currently is about 0.5 million tonnes annually.

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Sagar Island port plan revived

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