PM Gati –Shakti Multimodal Maritime Summit held at Bhubaneswar
Odisha has strategic potential for growing to Coastal Shipping Hub-Chief Secretary
PPA on its path towards Port of the Millenium during the Amrit Kal
By Swagatika Bhutia
Bhubaneswar, Nov 15: A tow day Summit on Prime Minister Gati-Shakti Multimodal Maritime was inaugurated in Bhubaneswar today under the joint aegis of Paradip Port Authority, State and Central Government. Addressing the Summit as Chief Guest, Chief Secretary Sri Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said, “Odisha is a maritime State, and has strategic location for coastal shipping. Our Coastal line is quite suitable for development of deep Ports. Eastern part of India including Odisha is growing at a fast rate. Odisha is supplying Thermal Coal, Iron Ore and Manganese to a large number of States in India. The growth rate will be faster in coming years”.
Sri Mahapatra added, “The PM Gati-Shakti is a Pan Indian platform that would address to the critical issues of reducing logistic cost of mineral transport substantially, and would accelerate the growth of Coastal Shipping. It is a comprehensive and converged platform of all the related departments in both State and Central Government along with other major Stakeholders”. With uploading of information by all concerned, the planning and decision making for the Sector would be more perfect and faster. It would also bring the real ease of doing business for the investors. Sri Mahapatra opined, Odisha would soon become one of the biggest hubs in Coastal Shipping of the minerals and finished products. Sri Mahapatra assured that State Government would extend all help for implementation of the recommendations of this two-day Summit.
Joining the inaugural session as Guest of honour, Divisional Railway Manager Sri Rinkesh Roy said, “East coast railway is No-1 freight loading zone in the entire Railways. Paradip is the 2nd largest Port in terms of the volume handled through Rail link network. The region has huge Mining and Industrial belt”. He said that 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 of Govt of India Sri Bhusan Kumar gave a blueprint of the converged mechanism put in place for successful implementation of Gati Shakti projects. He said that the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways prioritized 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.
Shri Jayant Singh, Vice Chairman, IWAI said “Inland waterways is the low hanging fruit in seamless multimodal transportation. Odisha with its long stretches of water mass across different regions posses immense potential for development of Inland waterways.
Chairman Paradip Port Authority Shri P.L. Haranadh said, that Paradip Port in its 56 years of Cargo handling service would attain a record 125 MMT annual traffic in FY 2022-23. He added, “During the Amrit Kal, Paradip will be the Port of the Millennium by having a capacity of more than 500 MMT by 2047”. PM Gati-Shakti would be the prime mover of this transformation. He stressed the need to augment capacity of Rail, Road and Waterways to match the capacity augmentation plans of Paradip port. Deputy Chairman Paradip Port Authority Sri A.K. Bose presented the past, present and future prospects of Paradip Port and offered the vote of thanks.
The inaugural session was followed by two technical sessions namely Gati-Shakti platform- Creating synergy among departments; and Potential opportunities in logistic eco-system for sustainable Industrial development. The veteran subject experts from Container Corporation of India, Ministry of Commerce and Transport Government of India, Commissionerate of Customs, Steel Authority of India, Tata Steels, Mahanadi Coal Field, JM Baxi, IFFCO, Samsara Shipping led the deliberations in these two sessions.
