In 3 weeks, about 5 firms express interest to develop Tajpur port

KOLKATA: The Bengal government has received an overwhelming response against its "requests for proposals (RFP)" to set up Tajpur deep sea port with five national and international firms, who are experts in the business, have already shown interest to develop the same.

Though the date of submission for the Request for Quotation (RFQ) starts on November 22 and ending on December 20, the state government has already received intimation of the five firms in just three weeks times after West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) floated a notice on October 18 highlighting the support that will be provided by the government to develop the project.

With the pre-bid meeting going to take place, a top brass of the state Secretariat said: "Response is very good. Already five national and international expert firms have shown interest in developing the port".

Setting up of Tajpur Port is one of the dream projects of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as it would first of all lead to employment generation and most importantly it is going to bring a massive growth in the economy of the region benefitting the people of East and West Midnapore, Burdwan and Hooghly. The overwhelming response from top business houses across the globe comes at the time when the Chief Minister's aim is to make Bengal number one in industry and commerce in the country.

The state government has already identified 1200 acres, which used to be a salt godown at one point of time, at Dadanpatrabar in East Midnapore to set up the port following a survey and estimated an investment of Rs 16,000 crore for the development of the port.

If everything goes as per the initial planning, then six of the total 15 berths will be constructed in phase-I and rest of the nine berths will come up in the second phase. All the terminals will be multipurpose one. There will be facilities to handle petroleum, dry bulk cargo and container cargoes in all the terminals.

It needs a mention that the Centre did not take up the project of developing the port despite initial assurances even after the state government was ready to give 74 per cent stake in exchange for the construction of an iron bridge across Muriganga to connect Sagar Island with the mainland.

Now the state government has taken the move to set up the port without the Centre's assistance and announced a "concession period of 99 years and complete flexibility of tariff for concessionaire" besides developing better road connectivity to nearest highway and support to ensure "rail linkage

to port".