Bhubaneswar: Bihar government is going to set up a port on Odisha coast.
“We express our thankfulness to Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik to have accepted the proposal of our chief minister Nitish Kumar for setting up a port facility in Odisha”, said Bihar additional chief secretary (ACS) Brijesh Mehrotra, here on Tuesday. Mehrotra is leading a high level bureaucratic team which in Odisha to discuss about the port proposal. The Bihar ACS said, ” I am impressed with the kind of infrastructure created by Odisha government in the industrial estates and the facilitating support provided by the State to the investors”.
The team had a discussion with senior officers of Odisha in a high level meeting held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra in Lokseba Bhawan conference hall today afternoon.
Odisha posed 14 identified ideal location for port facility along 440 km long State coastline. While 7 sites are located north to Paradip Port, 7 are down south of Paradip Port.
Bihar is keen to develop a sea port north to Paradip port for that would logistically suitable to the neighbouring land-locked State.
A technical team of Bihar would soon visit Odisha to see the identified locations and assess the feasibilities of developing the port facility as per requirements of Bihar.
Chief secretary Mahapatra assured the visiting team of all possible help from government of Odisha as per the existing policies.
Development commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena advised ACS Bihar Mehrotra to assess the requirement of Bihar so that the port facility could be planned accordingly.
Principal secretary commerce and transport Madhusudan Padhi said, “Fourteen locations along Odisha coast have been identified with detailed study for development of ports”.
Commerce and transport special secretary Manoj Kumar Mishra presented visual details of the identified locations and outlined the comparative advantages and challenges associated with the locations. Brief details about seven locations to north and seven locations to the south of Paradeep port were discussed.
Principal secretary industry Hemant Kumar Sharma outlined different commercial models for successful running of a port in Odisha coast. IDCO CMD Sanjay Kumar Singh outlined the different models adopted in development of textile park, seafood Park, aluminum park, plastic part, electronic park and IT park in Odisha.
Santosh Kumar Sinha, Executive Director of Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority highly appreciated the facilities created in the industrial estates of Odisha.
After the meeting, ACS Bihar Mehrotra said, “Today’s meeting was quite fruitful. I thank Odisha government to have given us this opportunity”. He added, “I visited employment intensive apparel factories in Macheswar industrial estate today. I am quite impressed with the infrastructural facilities created in the industrial estates and the facilitating support being provided by State government to the investors”. He further added that “We would visit the sea food park, electronic and IT park tomorrow to see the models applied there”.
