By Anil Pathak, Gandhinagar, 27 February 2013

In a major decision towards development of coastal areas the state maritime board has initiated work on two majaor ports- Nargol near Ummargaon in South Gujarat and Chhara near Kodinar on Saurashtra coast as major green ports. Reliable sources in GMB said that all required formalities for obtaining permissions and other procedures for these two ports are almost completed.

A senior official with the state maritime board told this correspondent that the said ports would be developed through PPP model and, for that the ports developers have been finalized. For one of the ports Israel based firm has agreed for the terms and conditions put up by the board.

Marine infrastructure for both Nargol and Chhara would be done as per the guidelines for green ports declared by the union government.According to a study conducted by the government a huge sum of Rs.3,000 crore would be required for these two green field ports.

In view of increasing business with several European and other countries like America, Russia,Gulf, Africa and South East the state government has chalked out an ambitious plan to augment the cargo handling capacities at all non-major ports and Nargol and Chhara are also going to be developed in the same direction. In addition to this decision the Gujarat Maritime Board has also cleared proposals for creating new jetties at other non-major ports including that of Bhavnagar,Navlakhi and Jamnagar. Senior technocrats of the board have already started working out the details for the proposed private jetties at these three ports on Saurashtra sea coast.

Except Kandla – the lone major port of Gujarat managed by the Port Trust, all other non-major ports – 42 – are managed by the Gujarat Maritime Board. The cargo handling of these non-major ports has reached a whopping 11 million metric tonnes. While the state has four other ports including Mundra, Pipavav,Dahej and Hazira which are privately managed ports and have been doing very well since last few years. Sources in the maritime board hinted that the turnover of cargo handling by the state managed ports have increased in last few years and their turnover has increased to the tune of Rs.800 cror per annum.

Besides commercially developed ports, many non-major ports like Mandvi in Kutch,Okha, Porbander,Veraval on Saurashta coast and Magdalla and Unnargaon on South Gujarat coast have registered increase in cargo handling, and efforts are being made to augment cargo handling capacities of these ports. A major project of ferry service between Ghogha and Dahej has also been launched on trial basis.While ship building activities at Alcock Ashdown company run by the government has also stepped up in recent years.