The Hindu Business Line : Salgaocars may come into Karnataka minor port plan

GOA-BASED shipping and mining barons, the Salgaocars, could enter minor port development in Belikeri in neighbouring Karnataka, besides participating in the Hubli-Ankola rail link project, as per a revamped, double-decker proposal.

The Infrastructure Development Department (IDD) of Karnataka is reviewing an earlier plan to have a multi-purpose minor port at Tadri. It may instead plump for a dedicated bulk cargo option at the more northern Belikeri. This may be a more cost-effective and feasible alternative to the older Tadri plan, involving an investment of Rs 2,000 crore.

The Government is considering a tentative proposal by the Vasco-based V.M. Salgaocar & Brother (P) Ltd to have iron ore transhipments from the Bellary-Hospet belt and some of their own on barges out of nearby Belikeri or even Tadri, said Mr S. Krishna Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary, IDD. Transhipments would be less capital-intensive and more feasible than creating berthing facilities from scratch for large Panamax size ships.

The earlier project to develop a large, minor port with a dozen berths at Tadri, a largely fishing harbour, was awarded two years ago to a consortium including South Korean Hanjin Engineering and Construction and its domestic partner, Mumbai-based Zoom Developers.

The Letter of Intent to Hanjin has as good as lapsed with little progress, as Tadri faces Coastal Regulation Zone restrictions, and also because the consortium has said it cannot go ahead without the Hubli-Ankola rail link coming up first.

"The whole configuration has changed. Tadri port may not take off in the form that we had envisaged with Hanjin," Mr Krishna Kumar told Business Line. The new plan, he said, was for incremental and synchronised development with smaller investment of a few hundred crores for activities such as dredging. The idea was to get the port started in small steps and on a smaller scale.

The Salgaocars have also shown interest in making capital investment in the Hubli-Ankola rail line, a key coastal link for the iron ore-rich hinterland. "We are seeing how the two could be structured in an integrated manner so that a single SPV (special purpose vehicle) can drive the port and rail projects, rather than have two entities," Mr Krishna Kumar said.