Dhamra Port inaugurated by Orissa CM

The Dhamra Port- located at the north of the mouth of the river Dhamra in Orissa- has been officially inaugurated by the State's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik two weeks ago. The Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL) is a 50:50 joint venture between heavyweights Larsen and Toubro and Tata Steel; an all weather port located close to the mineral belt of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal, its promoters say that the available draft of 17.5 metre will enable them to handle Cape Size vessels of up to 180000 DWT with ease.

Besides the Chief Minister, Mr K. Mohandas, Secretary, Union Ministry of Shipping; Mr Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo, Orissa Minister for Commerce and Transport; Mr Prafulla Samal, Orissa Minister for Tourism, Culture and Cooperation ; Mr Santosh Kumar Mohapatra, CEO, and other senior officials of DPCL were present at the function. DPCL hopes that the port- built on the BOOST (Build, Own, Operate, Share and Transfer) basis, will become a major player on the country's eastern seaboard, and the most cost effective one to boot.  The port will be handed over to the Orissa government after 30 years.

Dhamra has been under construction for four years, since 2007, and has already serviced around fifty ships since May this year. DPCL has dredged an 18 km long channel to connect the port to the deep sea and a 62 km rail link to connect Dhamra with the Howrah-Chennai line. At the port, DPCL has built two berths of 350 m each, capable of loading 100,000 tonnes of dry bulk cargo daily. Long term, DPCL plans to have thirteen berths, capable of handling everything from containers to liquid and bulk (both dry and breakbulk) cargoes- to the tune of 100 million tonnes annually. 

Dhamra Port is looking at other expansion options too, it is learnt. Proposals from Indian Oil Corporation and Petronet LNG for building a dedicated LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal are some of them; the LNG market is seen as a large revenue earner for the country in future. DPCL also wants to augment berth capacity at the port. 

 “We have contributed two berths. This project has got a lot of potential and we would like to expand this project. Already, there are proposals to build several terminals and we are considering these proposals”, said Y M Deosthalee, Chairman of L&T Finance and DPCL at the inauguration. “This project is a landmark project envisaging an investment of over Rs 3500 crore,” he added.  DPCL has already invested heavily in the port- Rs 762.79 crore, Rs 1088.26 crore and Rs 1059.40 crore in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively, and another 60.45 crore till the end of September this financial year.

Shipping secretary K Mohan Das implied that more projects such as Dhamra were sorely needed for the country to prosper.“Indian port capacity is totally inadequate for the economic growth that the country is striving for. Our current port capacity is more than three billion tones at present and it needs to be multiplied three times by 2020. The Dhamra port is an impressive addition to our port capacity growth”, he said.

Greenpeace continues protest against Dhamra port

accuses Environmental Ministry of double standards

                                pic: Greenpeace

Environmental group Greenpeace has alleged that the Ministry of Environment and Forests is displaying double standards in Orissa: although it has stymied Vedanta’s mining activities in Niyamgiri in eastern Orissa, the Ministry is doing nothing to safeguard sensitive ecological areas against the joint Tata Steel/Larsen and Toubro Dhamra port project in the same state.

Greenpeace has been campaigning against the Dhamra project for more than five years now. The port is scheduled to begin operations at the end of the year, according to the Tatas. Greenpeace activist Ashish Fernandes now says, “The Government is selectively applying forest and environmental laws to corporations.”

Greenpeace is fighting the project because it says that the port is too close to the breeding ground of the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles, and another similar project is home to the saltwater crocodiles. In any case, says Greenpeace, the entire project is situated in ecologically sensitive wildlife areas and should be stopped. It says that government released documents clearly show that the port is in violation of the Forest Conservation act; it says it has documents from the Orissa authorities to prove this, quoting a report by Mr JK Tewari of the Environmental Ministry’s eastern office as saying, "It is clear that Dhamra Port project site was never developed as a Port and is a part of the protected forest under the Kanika Protected Forest [Orissa]."

A 2009 Supreme Court ruling had referred the entire matter to a committee, which agreed with the Government’s stand that no laws had been violated. The government had submitted to the Supreme Court an affidavit saying that the project is not built on forest land, something that Greenpeace aggressively disputes.

The website of the Dhamra Port claims that the port area is “30 kms away from nesting area by sea and 15 kms as the crow flies”, and that findings show that it is sufficiently away from the limits of both the Gahirmatha Sanctuary and National Marine Sanctuary. Critics say that Greenpeace wants to compare the Vedanta mining episode with the Dhamra project in order to give fresh impetus to their protests. It also hopes to get Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh to react to the allegations.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the port is nearly complete. Nevertheless, Greenpeace hopes that the Environmental Ministry will stall the port development now. "For years, we have had this 'fait accompli' situation in which big companies would simply create huge constructions in violation of environmental laws and later pay a small penalty to regularise it. Vedanta was the first case where the minister broke with this tradition. But we are not sure why the same yardstick is not being used against the Dhamra project. If you can shut down Vedanta project for building without getting forest clearance, you should be able to punish Dhamra as well," says Fernandes.

"It is a matter of fairness, if you are applying one law for Vedanta, you must apply the same to other groups also."
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