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Nodal agency Tamil Nadu
Maritime Board has made
a fresh beginning to the
proposed development of
the defunct Colachel minor port in
the east coast state. Speaking to
Projectmonitor, a senior TNMB
official said that the board was in
the process of evaluating bids
submitted by incumbent
consultants. The maritime board
is likely to finalise the consultant
in the next 10 days, the official
said. The consultant selected
would be responsible for
preparing the techno-economic
feasibility report that would
govern the further progress on the
project. Bids closed for submission
on December 31, 2009.
When asked about land, the
official said that sufficient
government land was available
and even though coastal land at
disposal was limited, there was
always scope to reclaim land.
The broad project parameters
like cost, capacity and type of
cargo would depend on the
TEFR. "It is premature to
comment on these issues now,"
the official pointed out.
It is interesting to note that the
Colachel minor port
development has been in the
making for over a decade but
without much success. In 2007,
the Centre had entrusted
Sethusamudram Corporation Ltd
with the task of developing the
port. SCL in February that year
had also floated tenders for
consultants but the process came
to naught due to some
"discrepancy" in the tender
documents, an industry source
recalled. The port development
mandate is now with TNMB, the
board official explained.
Although the port
development plan will depend
on the TEFR, Colachel—now a
defunct minor port with only
sporadic fishing activity—is
seen as a potential container
hub, despite the presence of two
other major ports in Tamil
Nadu—Ennore and Chennai.
Due to its strategic location at
the southern tip of India near
Kanyakumari, there is potential
of transshipment of containers
through Colachel, weaning
traffic away from Colombo.
In 1998 too, the state
government had made a feeble
attempt to develop the port into
a major container port. An
agency called TACID had
submitted a feasibility report to
the state government, and so did
a Malaysian port development
company sometime later. Both
these pursuits did not fructify
for a number of reasons,
including inadequate funds with
the state government.
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