'Bengal govt to develop Tajpur Port on its own'

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the state government will set up Tajpur Port on its own. Banerjee said for the last five years, she had negotiated with the Centre to set up the port but in vain.

Inaugurating the Dighashree Bangla International Convention Centre, she maintained: "Nitin Gadkari had told me that the Centre would set up the port if the state government was ready to give them 74 percent share. We had agreed and requested the Centre to construct an iron bridge at Gangasagar. We have waited for five years and now we have decided to set up the port on our own. It will generate new employment."

State ministers Firhad Hakim, Indranil Sen, Suvendu Adhikari were present at the inaugural function along with Sishir Adhikari, Dibyendu Adhikari and Dipak Adhikari (MPs) and industrialists Rudra Chatterjee and Mayank Jalan. Senior bureaucrats including Chief Secretary Malay De, Subrata Gupta, Principal Secretary, Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department and Antara Acharya, CEO, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) were also present.

Referring to the huge number of tourist footfall in Puri owing to the importance of the place as a religious destination, Banerjee said that a new Jagannath temple would soon be built in Digha.

"I have gone to Puri, I am a devotee of Jagannath. Puri is a small place but they (Odisha government) could not build it the manner we have developed Digha. I have a plan to build a similar Jagannath temple here in Digha. There is a small Jagannath ghat here and I had asked the District Magistrate to renovate and upgrade it. We will also build Masjid and Church here... This will bring in more tourists here," she said.

She further added: "We are also planning to introduce electric buses here. We are building two parking plazas of international standard here. The government also has plans to bring in seaplanes to augment tourist footfall in Digha. The 7 km long stretch along the beach will also be beautified and opened to the public shortly."