Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s ambitious plan of developing a smart city near each major port is likely to see Kandla port getting the first one, in a few years.
The terms of reference (ToR) for the potential project, with the areas of Kandla and Gandhidham under the project charter’s ambit, are currently being prepared. ToR, or project charter, implies laying out the essential structure and purpose of a project and how the goal might be achieved.
One dedicated smart city would be developed near each major port at an investment of Rs 3,000-4,000 crore, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping minister had said in an earlier interview. “These will be green smart cities and you would see these completed in five years.”
There are 12 major ports in India — Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, Visakhapatnam, Cochin, Chennai, New Managlore, Ennore, Tuticorin, Paradip and Kolkata. These have a total of over 260,000 acres of land among them.
“There are a lot of technicalities involved, as most of these ports are over 50 years old. The prerequisites of due-diligence, hiring consultants, and mapping of areas, among other things, need be completed before we can tangibly proceed with the project. It will take another couple of years before the plans are firmly in place,” said a senior ministry official involved in the project.
The smart port industrial cities would be built in line with international standards and have wide roads, advanced townships, special economic zones and greenery. The ports would also have international benchmarking, and ship-breaking & ship-building centres, besides other ancillary things, he said.
“These port cities will involve consumption of green energy to be generated at ports. There also are a few other ideas that will be looked into later,” added another official.
Among other major ports being looked at for development of a port city ecosystem and Mumbai and Paradip. Mumbai Port Trust has about 750 hectares of land, valued at about Rs 46,000 crore.
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