kolkata: Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (SMP), will invest about Rs 2500 crore in the next three years for further infrastructural development of the port.
"We have already given a concession of Rs 180 crore, for Kidderpore Dock, mainly for IWD transportation. This will also enable the dock to handle containers. Another contract of Rs 300 crore for operations of Berth no. 2 in Haldia Dock is being planned," Chairman of SMP, Kolkata, Vinit Kumar said on the sidelines of a maritime public-private partnership (PPP )conclave where the silver jubilee of the PPP model in the port sector was celebrated.
He added that the entire operation of the Netaji Subhas Dock will be done on a PPP model.
Elaborating on the expansion plan, Kumar said that a proposal of Rs 400 crore for the extension of the gate facility at Balagarh and the development of a jetty for the transportation of containers and other materials. He added that two more jetties are being developed in the first phase to decongest the port.
"We will deploy a floating crane with an investment of Rs 75 crore as part of a concession of 15 years in Diamond Harbour and Sagar for transhipment of containers," Kumar said. According to him over Rs 20,000 crore have been invested in the port sector under the PPP model which accounts for around 30 per cent of the total capacity in the port sector.
An investment of Rs 28,000 crore is in the pipeline in the next seven to eight years which will be a big boost to the shipping and port sector" he added.
At the maritime conclave, the company Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd today handed over a feasibility report to SMP Kolkata for setting up crude import storage and a dispatch terminal at Haldia to SMP Kolkata for taking the project forward.