Bhubaneswar, Nov 15 : Odisha will soon become one of the biggest hubs in Coastal Shipping of minerals and finished products, State Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said.
Inaugurating a two-day Summit on Prime Minister Gati-Shakti Multimodal Maritime here on Tuesday, Mohapatra said Odisha being a maritime State has a strategic location for coastal shipping.
The coastal line of the state, he said, is quite suitable for the development of deep Ports.
Eastern part of India including Odisha, Mohapatra said is growing at a fast rate supplying Thermal Coal, Iron Ore and Manganese to a large number of States in India.
The PM Gati-Shakti is a Pan Indian platform that would address the critical issues of reducing the logistic cost of mineral transport substantially, and would accelerate the growth of Coastal Shipping, he said.
It would also bring real ease of doing business for the investors. The State Government, the chief secretary said, would extend all help for the implementation of the recommendations of this two-day Summit.
Divisional Railway Manager of East Coast Railway Rinkesh Roy said, “East Coast Railway is the No-1 freight loading zone in the entire Railways and Paradeep is the second largest Port in terms of the volume handled through the Rail link network.
The region, he said, has a huge Mining and Industrial belt and the East Coast Railway was on its path for augmentation of its Rail-network in Odisha from Mining and Industrial points to the Port.
Addressing the Summit, Joint Secretary Sagarmala Projects Bhusan Kumar gave a blueprint of the converged mechanism put in place for the successful implementation of Gati Shakti projects.
He said that the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways prioritized the improvement of connectivity to more than 50 plus non-major operative Ports through PM Gati Shakti.
In this comprehensive port connectivity plan, more than 107 connectivity gaps were identified for abridging port connectivity.
IWAI Vice Chairman Jayant Singh said “Inland waterways are the low-hanging fruit in seamless multimodal transportation.
Paradeep Port Authority Chairman P.L. Haranadh said Paradip Port in its 56 years of Cargo handling service would attain a record 125 MMT annual traffic in FY 2022-23.
During the Amrit Kal, Paradip will be the Port of the Millennium by having a capacity of more than 500 MMT by 2047, he said.
The inaugural session was followed by two technical sessions namely Gati-Shakti platform- Creating synergy among departments and, Potential opportunities in the logistic eco-system for sustainable Industrial development.