Kolkata: The Government of India has given the nod for a new dock facility in East Midnapore district of West Bengal that would handle around 23.4 million tonnes (MT) of cargo annually.
The new facility at Salukkhali, called Haldia Dock II, will be just 15 km away from the existing Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) and will be implemented through the public-private-partnership (PPP) route.
“The centre’s Public Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC) has recently okayed the proposed new dock facility in East Midnapore. We expect that we can issue the Letter of Intent (LoI) for the project by April next year,” HDC Manager (Railways) Asish Kumar Bose said. ” We expect that the new facility would be commissioned by 2016-17.”
The project, which will have two parts — Haldia Dock II North and Haldia Dock II South– is estimated to cost around Rs 1,707.50 crore.Th e facility would come up on 163 acres, allotted to KoPT by the state government.
Each part of Haldia Dock II will have two jetties, one mechanised of 6.59 MT capacities and the other multipurpose of 5.11 MT capacities.
“We will now seek request for proposals (RFPs) from the firms which are interested in investing in the PPP project,” the official said.
He said more than 90 percent of the cargo for the new dock facility was expected to be rail-borne and for that a rail corridor would be set up.
