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Our Bureau

Kolkata , Sept. 12

THE Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr T.R. Baalu, has announced several investments aimed at augmenting infrastructure at the Haldia Port. He described the proposed port at Sagar Island in West Bengal as "the future of Kolkata (port)."

Speaking to newspersons at the State administrative headquarters in Writers' Buildings after meeting the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on Monday, Mr Baalu said four new berths would be provided at Haldia at an investment of Rs 150 crore.

Work on the project will be completed by December 2006. Besides, two rail-mounted cranes will be installed at Haldia this month at an investment of Rs 40 crore.

Mr Baalu said it has been decided to invest Rs 50 crore on the container development area at Jellingham, Haldia. An amount of Rs 25 crore will also be invested on four rubber-tyre gantries at Haldia, which will be made operational by December 2005.

These projects, as well as the future of the proposed port at Sagar Island, formed part of the discussions with Mr Bhattacharjee.

Mr Baalu said a pre-feasibility study on the proposed Sagar port has been completed and a feasibility study was currently on.

According to him, Mr Bhattacharjee had requested the Ministry to beef up road connectivity between select points in the State and the Kolkata port system. Two roads will be constructed to connect the Kona Expressway and Vidyasagar Setu to Kolkata port. A four-lane road on NH 34 will be built to improve connectivity between Kolkata and the North East. While the National Highways Authority of India will construct the four-lane NH 34, the maintenance of the highway will be done by the State PWD Department.

The Minister said the Kolkata and Haldia ports were "doing well" and several suggestions that have been made with regard to augmentation of infrastructure and facilitating increased throughput were under the ministry's "consideration".

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