All is not lost so far as the investment scenario in West Bengal is concerned. On Friday, six companies, three of them multinationals, participated in a pre-application conference for a proposed container terminal at Diamond Harbour that will involve an investment of nearly Rs 1,600 crore. Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) hopes to finalise the tender by mid-2013 and commissioning of the terminal is expected in 2015.
"The terminal, with a capacity to handle 1.2 million TEUs per year, will be built on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. Diamond Harbour is 42 km from Kolkata by road but its distance from the city along the river is 75 km. The distance from Diamond Harbour to the Sandheads is 150 km. If ships can unload containers at Diamond Harbour, they won't have to sail an additional 75 km to Kolkata. Moreover, the draught at Diamond Harbour is nine metres which is more than that at Kolkata or even Haldia. This will enable larger ships with more containers to berth," a KoPT official said.
Source : timesofindia
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