Odisha Set To Become One Of Biggest Coastal Shipping Hubs

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday asserted that the state will soon emerge as one of the biggest hubs in coastal shipping of minerals as well as finished products.

This was stated by Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra at the two-day Summit on Prime Minister Gati-Shakti Multimodal Maritime which was inaugurated in Bhubaneswar under the joint aegis of Paradip Port,  state government and the Centre.

Addressing the Summit as Chief Guest, the Chief Secretary said Odisha is a maritime state and has strategic location for coastal shipping, while its coastal line is quite suitable for development of deep ports.

“Eastern part of India including Odisha is growing at a fast rate. Odisha is supplying thermal coal, iron ore and manganese to a large number of States in India. The growth rate will be faster in coming years,” Mahapatra said.

Noting that the PM Gati-Shakti is a Pan Indian platform that would address to the critical issues of reducing logistic cost of mineral transport substantially, he said it would accelerate the growth of coastal shipping.

“It is a comprehensive and converged platform of all the related departments in both state and Central government along with other stakeholders,” he said.

With uploading of information by all concerned, the planning and decision making for the sector would be more perfect and faster. It would also bring the real ease of doing business for the investors.

Endowed with a strategic location and the necessary potential, Odisha would soon become one of the biggest hubs in coastal shipping of the minerals and finished products, the Chief Secretary said.

He assured the participants that the state government would extend all help for implementation of the recommendations of this two day Summit.

Joining the inaugural session as Guest of honour, senior railway official Rinkesh Roy said East Coast Railway (ECoR) is No-1 frieght loading zone in the entire railways, while Paradip is the second largest port in terms of the volume handled through rail link network. The region has huge mining and industrial belt and ECoR is on its path for augmentation of its rail-network in Odisha from mining and industrial points to the port.

Joint Secretary, Sagarmala Projects, Bhusan Kumar gave a blue print of the converged mechanism put in place for successful implementation of Gati Shakti projects. He said that the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways prioritised improvement of connectivity to more than 50 plus non-major operative ports through PM Gati Shakti. In this comprehensive port connectivity plan, more than 107 connectivity gaps were identified for abridging port connectivity.

Vice Chairman of IWAI Jayant Singh Inland waterways is the low hanging fruit in seamless multimodal transportation. Odisha with its long stretches of water mass in different regions has immense potential for development of inland waterways.

Chairman of Paradip Port Trust P L Haranadh said Paradip Port would attain a record 125 MMT annual traffic in 2022-23. “During the Amrit Kal, Paradip will be the Port of the Millennium by having a capacity of more than 500 MMT by 2047,” he said, adding that PM Gati-Shakti would be the prime mover of this transformation.