Monday, March 25, 2013

Nothing less than Adam’s Dilemma

Dhamra Port on the coasts of Orissa may well Open The Gates of fortune for The State, but at The Same time it may also Prove fatal for The rare Olive Ridley Turtles. This is now writing The Newest Chapter of Tussles between Environmentalists and Industrialists in The State.

Ever since the Naveen Patnaik government stepped ahead to bring in an industrial revolution in Orissa, the state has been witnessing increasing number of agitations and activism cases. Owing to the same while India’s biggest FDI backed (Rs.520 billion) POSCO steel plant project is stuck with land acquisition issues, global steel major Arcelor Mittal, who signed a MoU with Orissa government in 2006 to set-up a Rs.400 billion steel plant, finally gave up hope and moved on to sign a MoU with the Karnataka government. Vedanta Group suffered a double blow with it’s aluminium plant in Lanjigarh (Western Orissa) and Rs.150 billion Vedanta University in the eastern part of the state. Most of the mega industrial ventures in Orissa are now at halt or fighting hard to salvage a situation out of nothing. They are facing road blocks created by either pro-environment activists or anti-displacement agitators. The latest addition to this struggling bunch of projects is the Port of Dhamra, though with a little twist. While most of the above mentioned projects are struggling to start off, Dhamra port is facing the heat when it is just about to be completed.

Before getting into a discussion of development vs environment, which is the real issue haunting the project at the moment, one must know that on completion Dhamra port – developed by Dhamra Port Company Ltd. (a 50:50 joint venture between L&T and Tata Steel at an estimated cost of Rs.24.6 billion) – will become the first ever fully mechanised port on the eastern shore of the country. In addition, the port, which is strategically located between Haldia (West Bengal) and Paradip port (Orissa) on the Bay of Bengal, will be one of the largest deep water ports in India adding impetus not only to the trades of the state but also of the country in a serious way. The important fact about this port is that when the project work started in 2006 (agitation against POSCO for land issues were at their peak), there were no such issues against DPCL though government acquired around 3,000 acres of land in 74 villages for the port and rail corridor. Displacement was never a hurdle for the project. Recollects K. C. Patra, District Collector, Bhadrak, “Issues relating land acquisition were handled in an exemplary manner. The process was accomplished in a way that no one was left landless at the end. Thus district administration did not face any problem during acquisition of lands.”

However, the real pain for DPCL at the moment is the protest of environmentalists, which has gained a lot of momentum with international NGOs jumping into the bandwagon in a big way. And the issue raised by the environmental NGOs is the ports closeness to Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, where 200,000 to 500,000 Olive Ridley turtles nest every year. Though the port site is not a nesting area, environmentalists are concerned about the fact that dredging and industrial pollution will disrupt the environment and the natural food chain in the whole region.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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