Tajpur Deep Sea Port In West Bengal – Free PDF Download

• West Bengal state cabinet has approved the construction of a deep sea port at Tajpur.
• The state government will build the port at a cost of ₹15,000 crores, under the West Bengal Maritime Board and West Bengal Industrial Develpoment Corporation Limited (WBIDC).

1. It will be the state’s first deep sea port.

• It is expected to generate employment for 25,000 people.
• The iron and steel factories around Kharagpur, will get a boost by having a port nearby.
• The port will also enable exports from the iron and steel plants at Bardhaman, Bankura, Purulia and Burnpur.

1. West Bengal accounts for 13% of India’s iron and steel exports.
2. SAIL’s Durgapur Steel Plant is the 3^rd largest steel producer among the SAIL plants, after Bhilai and Bokaro.

• The port will help seafood exports from WB’s coastal districts to Southeast Asia and Japan – benefitting fishermen and the seafood processing industry.

Salient Features

• The Tajpur project is crucial for long term viability of the Calcutta Port Trust (CPT), which is a riverine port and faces perennial draft problem that prevents large carriers from entering the port.
• Draft problem = depth reduction because of silt deposits on the river mouth.
• Draft = difference between a river bed and the water level.
• The Tajpur Port is expected to offer 16 metre draft against a maximum of 8.5 meters depth available for CPT docks.

 What are deep sea ports?

• A port is an area or platform, entered into from the sea, by vessels, boats, ships, which also allows for protected staging and anchoring or docking for these ships to load and unload consignments and continue up towards its destination.
• A deep sea port is different from regular ports in respect of the depth of water.

1. It is usually made up for the usage of very large and heavily loaded ships.
2. The depth of water helps heavy capacity ships get access to the deep sea ports.

• Regular ports are usually of recreational types where the water is not more than 20 feet deep.
• A deep sea port, on the other hand, is compatible with the large heavy loaded ships which may require the water to be 30 feet deep or even more.
• Deep sea ports are also defined to be any port which has the capability to accommodate a fully laden Panamax ship, which is determined principally by the dimensions of the Panama Canal’s lock chambers.

Existing deep sea ports in India:

• Dhamra Port (Bhadrak district, Odisha)
• Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Navi Mumbai
• Krishnapatnam (Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh)

Other proposed deep sea ports in the country:

• Port of Trivandrum(Kerala)
• Port of Dahej (Bharuch, Gujarat)

Delays and disputes of the Tajpur port

• The Tajpur deep sea port project was first envisioned in 2016.
• Initially, the Bengal government had decided to develop the port on its own with a private partner.
• But in the later half of 2017, Nabanna agreed to give 74 per cent stake to the Centre, which was working to develop a riverine port in South 24-Parganas’s Sagar Island under a special purpose vehicle called Bhor Sagar Port Ltd.
• ** Nabanna = Headquarters of WB state secretariat at Howrah (formerly seated at Writers’ Building, Kolkata).
• Nabanna claims that the majority stake of Tajpur port was given to the Centre with a precondition that a bridge should be built over the Muriganga river to connect Sagar Island to the mainland.

1. According to that agreement, the Tajpur port would be developed first.
2. But the Centre was slow on both the projects, and the progress on Tajpur port led to clashes with the WB state government.

• In 2019, owing to the delays, CM Mamata Banerjee announced that that her government would develop the proposed deep-sea port in East Midnapore’s Tajpur on its own.
• The CPT (Calcutta Port Trust) had almost completed the feasibility study, by then.

1. So a withdrawal from the Centre-state joint venture meant repeating the feasibility study and Environmental Impact Assessment from the beginning.

• The delays in the CPT’s feasibility study were because it was noted that a 7 kilometre dyke would be required for its commercial viability.

The Dyke

• A dyke or a sea wall would prevent silting.
• If the port has to handle Panamax vessels with capacity loads of 70,000 to 80,000 tonnes, a draft of 12 -12.5 metres is required.

1. Extensive dredging of sediments is expensive.
2. Building a 7km dyke wall would be the most feasible option – it would eliminate the need of dredging with ships.

• In January, 2020, the Central shipping ministry clarified that WB government is free to decide if it wants to develop the Tajpur Deep Sea port on its own (through PPP model), and the Central government will lend its support.
• In December, 2020, CM Mamata Banerjee formally announced the decision to develop the Tajpur project by the state government on its own.

The path ahead

• The CPT apprehends that the ports in Haldia and Calcutta will become unviable if Tajpur, which will be equipped to handle bigger ships, comes up.
• The Union shipping ministry was keen that the CPT remained a partner to ensure that Tajpur complemented Haldia instead of competing with it.

1. CPT is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India.
2. Renamed to Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, in September, 2020.

• Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (formerly CPT) is over 150 years old.

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