The Hindu Business Line : P&O to develop Bengal's Kulpi port

P&O currently holds 44.5 per cent in BPL; another 44.5 per cent equity stake is shared between Mr Rajesh Shah, MD, Mukand Steel, and Mr M.K. Jalan, Chairman, Keventer Agro.

Kolkata , Aug. 11

TEN years after the project's conception, West Bengal on Wednesday took a definitive step forward towards the State's first private port at Kulpi on the Hooghly, courtesy port logistics major P&O. The company will also take part in the development of a 2,700-acre special economic zone (SEZ) adjacent to the port.

The entire project will be located downstream of the existing dock complexes of the Kolkata Port Trust at Kolkata and Haldia.

According to the six sets of agreements signed at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday, Bengal Port Ltd (BPL) has been entrusted with the job of building the port and the SEZ. The zero date of the project is expected to be set 18 months from now.

P&O currently holds 44.5 per cent in BPL; another 44.5 per cent equity stake is shared between Mr Rajesh Shah, Managing Director of Mukund Steel, and Mr M.K. Jalan, Chairman of Keventer Agro.

According to the Principal Secretary, West Bengal Commerce and Industry Ministry, Mr Sabyasachi Sen, BPL will set up the port through another company called Port & Co in which P&O may pick up to 69 per cent stake.

"While the State government will start acquiring the land immediately, BPL will commission an environmental impact study and detailed engineering report for the port and the SEZ with immediate effect. The reports are likely to be completed in an year's time," Mr Sen said. "We will set the zero date once the environmental and other required clearances are in hand."

According to a P&O communiqué, the port will be spread over 300 acres. The preliminary cost of developing two berths by 2009 is $235 million. "The first berth is likely to be commissioned in 2007," Mr Sen said.

Mr Richard Hein, Chairman of P&O, who was present at the agreement signing ceremony on Wednesday, said: "We had started our operations from Kolkata and we are happy to be back here again." The company, though associated with India for over a century, has long been away from the State. It currently has terminals in three other locations in the country.

Keventer Agro's Mr Jalan told Business Line said the entire project, which combines the port and the SEZ, would be built through two companies. "P&O being a global logistics major will hold a majority stake in the Port & Co." On the other hand, both Mr Jalan and Mr Shah are likely to have a majority stake of 51 per cent in the SEZ. The West Bengal Industrial Board will continue to hold token stakes in both the projects.