Gadkari assures support for sea port at Sagar Islands.

The Centre would allocate adequate funds for construction of a deep-sea port and a petroleum storage plant near the port, said Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari after a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the State Secretariat recently.

'The Kolkata Port Trust and Government of West Bengal will form a joint venture to develop the Bhorsagar deep sea port, and Union Government will provide Rs. 12,000 crores for this project. This port will be connected by an underground tunnel,' the Union Minister said.

Stating that an MoU will be signed to float a joint venture for the deep sea port on February 7, 2015, Mr Gadkari said that the Government of West Bengal has already invested Rs. 170 crores for the Bhorsagar deep sea port at Sagar Islands in Sundarbans, which the Centre may pay back to the State government.

On the new road projects in the State, the Minister said if issues pending to land acquisition are sorted out, the Centre will fund the construction of 294 km of roads in Bengal.

'I expect that the land acquisition issue will be solved within a couple of months,'he said at an event later in the evening.


THE HINDU