The Chairman of Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), I Jeyakumar has claimed that the proposed satellite port at Betul in South Goa would not only increase state GDP by another 10 percent but would also provide immense employment opportunity for the locals.
He said that Betul port would be developed as a modern and eco friendly port for which the MPT would invest Rs 15000 crores to create facilities for many small scale industries and for constructing the infrastructure like roads and rail connectivity besides mechanization of the port.
“At present, in the port in Mormugao, we do not have land area left to expand anymore. We have only 250 acres of operational area but there have been growing demands from the industries and thus we have been asking for Betul with the request for 200 acres of land. Also MPT’s jurisdiction is till Betul and MPT is already in possession of about 3 lakhs square metres of land at Betul thus the additional land would be used to develop facilities to handle the transportation of bauxite, iron ore and other commodities for the major port in the state,” Jeyakumar said.
He further said, “The port will be a joint venture by the governments of India and Goa. We are intending to develop Cargo storage facility and to promote small scale industries. Also many of the cement industries have been approaching MPT as they want to put up cement packing plant, Similarly LPG companies, Edible oil refineries etc have been asking for land from MPT but we are landlocked and thus having Betul as another port, we would in position to give 10-10 acres of land to these small scale industries and these industries in turn would flourish economic activity in the area besides providing employment to locals.”
Jeyakumar further maintained, “Presently the area at the Betul has been marked for Goa Industrial Development Corporation, but hardly any industries have come up there, so our aim is to develop the port and industries would automatically come up at Betul. Another aspect which people opposing for the project should understand is the fact that the land in Betul cannot be put for any other use as the same falls under CRZ and other areas lying as barren plateau with no villages in the vicinity.”
Speaking about the present handling capacity at MPT, Jeyakumar said that, “At the moment MPT is surviving with coal, bauxite, iron ore handling. We cannot increase the coal handling but we can definitely increase handling of bauxite which has good demand internationally but at the present port bauxite is transported all the way from 60 kilometers distance and through Vasco city, but Betul would cut short all this distance and bauxite handling would be increased and Goa Government would also get more royalty on the same.”
Commenting on the objections raised by the people, he said, “The problem is, everybody wants to have pristine nature and I fully agree with the same, but they should also understand that we are not putting any thermal power plant at Betul and everything would be developed keeping environment into consideration.”
