The Hindu Business Line : Mormugao port expansion: Proactive role for private sector

Trade and industry associations should participate at the early stages of project planning rather than wait for government to provide them a ready project site for development.

Praveen Agarwal

Private sector participation in port infrastructure development has usually been forthcoming only after the Government or sponsoring organisations have made significant progress in the identification of potential sites, land acquisition, clearing encroached land areas, rehabilitation and relocation, shifting of utilities, etc.

The cumbersome bureaucratic procedures, and oftentimes vested local political interests, lead to inordinate delays in the preparatory activities in obtaining vacant possession of excellent waterfronts, and foreshore and land locations

Mormugao Port Trust has had to overcome several seemingly insurmountable obstacles in its efforts to augment port facilities; this strongly suggests that the private sector should partner the efforts of government and autonomous statutory bodies, such as the major port trusts, right from the earliest stages of infrastructural projects. Essentially, the responsibility of the corporate sector in nation-building should be much wider in scope, and the private sector must really step in at an earlier stage than participation only at the RFQ and RFP stages.

A case in point is the proposed development of Vasco Bay as a port terminal, for which MPT has been striving since the last decade. Participation of such trade and industry bodies as the CII, Ficci, Assocham, FIEO, chambers of commerce and trade associations would have been invaluable in expediting the growth of infrastructure facilities at MPT. Even at this stage, constructive intervention by these organisations would be a catalyst in the process of activating dormant projects.

Development of Vasco Bay

Vasco Bay comprises a well-protected and tranquil water area of approximately 175 acres within the notified limits of Mormugao Port Trust, Goa. The land on Vasco beach, within 50 yards of the High Tide Line (HTL), also belongs to MPT. The turning circle of the Mormugao Port Navigation Channel is on the edge of Vasco Bay.

Berth Nos. 10 and 11 of MPT, which are fully operational berths, fall within the Vasco Bay which, being on the sheltered side of the Headland Hill, is well protected from monsoon winds.

In short, Vasco Bay is an excellent site for development of port infrastructure in the form of at least six, if not eight berths, with the minimum expenditure — an ideal brownfield site for developing port and shipping operation facilities.

Being within MPT limits, and affording easy possibilities of reclamation of huge areas in view of shallow water depths near the shores, further land acquisition is not required at all.

With the completion of the 4-Lane NH-17 B right up to MPT, Vasco Bay will have excellent 4-lane road connectivity. The existing railway tracks within MPT can be easily extended up to Vasco Bay, without any land acquisition issues, thus providing good connectivity to South Western Railway (SWR), and Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC).

Excellent potential

Despite all this, the site has remained undeveloped for years now, given the occupation by some 400 slum-dwellers on the MPT land, within 50 yards of the HTL on Vasco beach, and also because of the existence of a somewhat makeshift fishing jetty at Khariwada (Vasco Beach area), virtually within arm’s length of Berth No. 11 of MPT.

The 300 or so fishing trawlers which crowd the port operational waters near Berth Nos. 10 and 11 are a major impediment to the smooth movements of merchant ships. Besides, MPT runs the enormous risk of losing its status as an ISPS-compliant (International Ships Facilities and Port Security Code) Port, in the event of which foreign going ships will stop calling at the port.

Thus, the Vasco Bay Port Terminal can be developed, if at all this is allowed by the concerned authorities, only as and when the families residing on MPT land within 50 yards of the HTL are relocated, and the Khariwada Fishing Jetty is shifted to some other suitable location outside the Vasco Bay — towards which MPT has been making consistent efforts for many years.

Relocation of slum-dwellers

Very recently, MPT has taken up the matter of rehabilitation and relocation of the Khariwada slum dwellers under the Integrated Housing Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), a scheme implemented by the Ministry of Urban Poverty Alleviation, under the overall umbrella of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Under this scheme, each of the families will be given one or more residential units, depending upon their present area of occupation of MPT land. Each family will thus get legitimate housing of their own, completely free of cost. MPT is agreeable to bear the cost of implementation of the slum development programme in conjunction with the Government.

Towards this objective, MPT has already appointed a Central Government approved Consultant for preparing the DPR and implementation of the rehabilitation programme. The Consultant has been in continuous interaction with the residents of Khariwada, who have now started appreciating the possible benefits of agreeing to their relocation. However, as always, there are some residents who, due to obvious vested interests, are making efforts to sabotage the scheme and stall the development of further port infrastructure.

Shifting of jetty

MPT has also offered to construct a world-class fishing jetty for the Khariwada fishermen at a suitable location outside Vasco Bay, but within MPT limits. No land acquisition or relocation/ rehabilitation issues will arise in respect of the proposed new fishing jetty.

MPT will bear the entire cost of approximately Rs 40 crore, along with the Department of Food Processing under the Ministry of Agriculture, for constructing the new jetty with facilities such as ice water plant, sorting yard, etc. Thus the Khariwada fishermen will have a safer, extremely modern and better-equipped fishing jetty than the present unsafe and broken-down one.

For constructing the new fishing jetty, MPT is on the verge of obtaining environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India, New Delhi.

As trade and industry associations, federations, and others would be aware, the process of obtaining environment clearance is exacting, tedious, and long drawn out.

The Environment Committee has duly taken into consideration all possible aspects of the matter, including rehabilitation and relocation of the fishing jetty to its new site east of Alparqueiros Hill, as well as the R&R of the slum dwellers living on MPT land.

Anticipating resistance from the local residents and fishermen to the relocation of the fishing jetty, as well as to the rehabilitation of the slum dwellers, MPT has asked the MoEF to issue directions for holding a public hearing, in which all concerned can be given an opportunity to voice their views.

Further, there may be little support from the local government to the proposed development plans of MPT. In such circumstances, there is every likelihood of the public hearing going against the efforts of MPT to augment much needed national port infrastructure.

MPT, therefore, hopes that the CII, Ficci, Assocham and the other such bodies, being enlightened and responsible representatives of the corporate sector, will pitch in and contribute their utmost in convincing the concerned authorities of the necessity of clearing Vasco Bay of the impediments / obstacles that have been inhibiting the growth of port infrastructure.

The proposed public hearing would be the ideal forum for such industry and trade bodies, and other similar organisations to voice their views on the necessity of rehabilitating and relocating both, the encroachers and the Khariwada fishing jetty.

It is MPT’s earnest suggestion that in situations like the one narrated above, trade and industrial associations of the country should participate at the early stages of project planning, and strongly convey their considered views, rather than waiting for government to provide them a ready project site for development.

A pro-active role by Ficci, Assocham and others at an early stage, even at the time of identification of potential sites, would go a long way in the development of much needed infrastructure.

(The author is Chairman, Mormugao Port Trust. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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