Bhubaneswar: Impressed with the infrastructures developed by state government to attract industries, Bihar government has proposed to set up a port facility in Odisha.
A team of senior officers from Bihar led by their Additional Chief Secretary Brijesh Mehrotra Tuesday held discussions with state government officers led by Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra.
Mehrotra said, “We express our thankfulness to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to have accepted the proposal of our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for setting up a port facility in Odisha. I am impressed with the kind of infrastructure created by Odisha government in the industrial estates and the facilitating support provided by the state to investors.”
After hearing the proposals put forth by the officers from Bihar, Mahapatra said, “A port facility needs to be managed professionally on commercial models for making it sustainable.” The Chief Secretary assured of all possible help from Government of Odisha as per the existing policies.
Development Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena advised Mehrotra to assess the requirement of Bihar so that the port facility could be planned accordingly.
The potential for development of port facilities in Odisha were discussed in the meeting. Commerce and Transport secretary Madhusudan Padhi said 14 locations along Odisha’s coastline have been identified for development of ports through a detail study.
Transport department Special Secretary Manoj kumar Mishra presented visuals details of the identified locations and outlined the comparative advantages and challenges associated with the locations. Brief details about seven locations to north and seven locations to the south of Paradeep port were discussed in the meeting.
It was deliberated that some location in north of Paradeep may be more useful for Bihar to develop the proposed port facility. A technical team of Bihar would soon visit Odisha to see all the identified locations and assess the feasibilities of developing the port facility as per requirements of Bihar.
Industries secretary Hemant Kumar Sharma informed the Bihar team about the different commercial models for successful running of a port in Odisha coast.
IDCO chairman and managing director Sanjay Kumar Singh informed about the different models adopted in development of textile park, seafood park, aluminum park, plastic part, electronic park and IT park in Odisha.
Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and senior officers of concerned departments from Odisha and Bihar participated in the deliberations. Sri Santosh Kumar Sinha, Executive Director of Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority highly appreciated the facilities created in the industrial estates of Odisha.
After the meeting, the Bihar team leader Mehrotra said, “I visited employment intensive apparel factories in Mancheswar Industrial Estate today. I am quite impressed with the infrastructural facilities created in the industrial estates and the facilitating support being provided by Odisha government to the investors.”
He further added that they will visit the sea food park, electronic and IT park tomorrow to see the models applied there.
PNN