The Haldia inland waterway terminal and jetty will be operational soon for transporting exim and inland cargo to Pandu terminal in Guwahati connecting Kolkata with Northeast through National waterway-2 (NW2). Contract for the same has been awarded by the central government.
Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that this opportunity will provide an alternate passage to the chicken neck route for easy as well as cost effective movement of cargo to and from North East to foreign countries and other States of India.
The Minister announced the development in Kolkata on Monday where he was meeting with various stakeholders of the port and shipping industry in Kolkata and the Haldia port. Major oil PSUs, SAIL, terminal operators, shipping lines, barge operators, custom clearing agents and land users of Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port participated in the meeting.
Stakeholders’ conference
Sonowal invited all the stakeholders to be a partner in this unique opportunity of using sea and river route combination (NW1 and NW2) via Kolkata port, Shipping Ministry said in a statement.
The minister also informed that the depth assurance contract has been awarded to maintain NW1 and NW2, and the barge operators shall soon start using these waterways as depths are assured. He added that there is a thought (in government) to provide guarantees to banks to give easy and soft funds for barges so that this sector can take off.
The stakeholders assured that they will come forward to utilise this opportunity to make this mission a success. More than 40 key players participated in the stakeholders’ conference.
The government is also developing the Haldia multi modal terminal (MMT) under public private partnership (PPP) basis. Haldia MMT has a capacity to handle 3.26 million tonnes (MT) of cargo annually and is being privatised on an EOT model (equip, operate and transfer).
The MMT not only connects NW 1 and NW2, but also acts as the gateway to Bangladesh. The terminal will also aid in moving cargo upstream from Haldia to Varanasi through the NW-1.