BHADRAK: After functioning on an experimental basis for nearly six months the Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL), a joint venture of Tata Steel and L&T, has become full-fledged all-weather and multi-user port on BOOST basis at Dhamra in Bhadrak district. The port is slated to be officially inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday. The functioning of the port had raised hopes among the locals on the opening of ancillary units which would provide them with more job opportunities. But those, it seems, are unlikely to materialise for now at least. Many companies which had evinced interest and even made field visits have stopped their projects, without citing any reason. According to District Land Acquisition Office sources, over a dozen private and public limited companies visited Dhamra region and other parts of the district to set up industries, since 2007, the year DPCL started the project work, but not a single company signed an MoU with the State Government till date. First to come was MGS Company. The Russian team led by Y Garade visited Dhamra port site in February 2008 for a steel plant and held discussions with the district administration but did not show up till date. Mittal Group’s technical team followed MGS and had also completed a survey for feasibility of the project. Despite discussing a land requirement of 8,000 acres to set up its steel plant and no problems to face, the team is yet to make any statement regarding the project here.Similar is the fate of the proposed Sugar industry by Dharani Sugar Industry at Dhamnagar for which the land acquisition work was completed. Not even an inch of work has been initiated even after three years. The last hope was a ship-building unit proposal by a multi-national company, Surendra Group. They had completed survey and other spade work to set up their industry in April 2009. The company had earmarked 1,070 acres of land, including private land of 945 acres in Rajendrapalli, Rajrajeswarpalli, Harishpur, Janakpalli and Chaudia villages of Dhamra area and the cost was estimated at Rs 2,000 crore and revised to Rs 3,000 crore. The district administration has notified the land acquisition but two years after, no progress has been made. District Land Acquisition Officer Suryakanta Padhi said the IDCO had sanctioned Rs 1 crore for land acquisition for the shipping project against the requirement of Rs 15 crore. Repeated reminders elicited no further funds, he added.
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