Shipping ministry seeks land from states to set up CEZ

Kolkata: In a bid to promote port-led development under the Sagarmala Project, the Shipping Ministry has sought land from various states including West Bengal for setting up a coastal employment zone (CEZ).

"We are in talks with the state government for getting the land. CEZs will be set up using the challenge methodology of Niti Aayog," said Abhishek Chandra, Director (Sagarmala), Shipping Ministry, at an Infrastructure Conclave organised by BCCI. The state governments will be providing the land as equity, while funding will be done by the Centre under the plan.

It has been learnt that Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat have already given land for the project, while talks are also on with Bengal and Maharashtra government. The total land that has been sought for CEZ is 1,000 acres and the ministry did not rule out the possibility of getting land at Haldia or Tajpur.

Under the Sagarmala programme, 196 projects of Rs 2,95,128 crore are under implementation and 125 projects of Rs 31,445 crore have been completed, while 37 are under tendering.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has set a target of increasing the cargo handling from 6 percent to 12 percent by 2025. "The maximum cargo movement is done through road or rail network. But we are trying to shift to coastal shipping to bring down the cost of transporting cargo. At present, more than 2,000 million tonnes of cargo is handled through coastal shipping," Chandra said.

The Centre has already spent Rs 1 lakh crore for port modernisation, which is expected to unlock 80 million tonnes of the capacity of Indian ports.