Indian defence ministry vetoes Kolkata container port proposal

INDIA's Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) plans to build a container port at Diamond Harbour 50 kilometres southwest of Kolkata have been thwarted because the defence ministry does not want to surrender land it owns there.

Sources told Mumbai's Daily News & Analysis (DNA) that the defence ministry has not given the go-ahead for the port the KoPT wants to build through a public-private partnership. Defence ministry approval was needed because it owns 57 acres on the site.

According to sources in KoPT, the defence ministry had consulted its ship building contractor Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) if would require its 57 acres, and it said that it intended to use this land for shipbuilding.

Sources said that the KoPT had offered GRSE an alternate land at Raichak, a few kilometres away, but the defence contractor turned it down.

KoPT is now trying to negotiate at a higher level, and may move things through the Prime Minister's Office.

(Source: www.schednet.com)