West Bengal Cabinet approved the Construction of the State’s 1st Deep Sea Port at Tajpur, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal. The Port is expected to attract investment of about INR 15, 000 Crores and generate employment for 25, 000 people. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated that the port will be built entirely by the West Bengal Government.

Key points:

i.The Tajpur Deep Sea Port under West Bengal Maritime Board & West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) will boost the seafood exports industry in East Midnapore and also benefits lakhs of fishermen.

ii.It will benefit the iron and steel industries functioning in and around Kharagpur for their export business.

iii.The Iron & Steel exports from Purulia, Burdwan and Bankura will also be boosted due to the port. This will be important as West Bengal accounts for 13 % of India’s iron-steel exports.

iv.The port will also facilitate seafood exporters in Medinipur to expand their export business to South-East Asia and Japan, besides creating new jobs and new infrastructure for seafood processing.

Ports in West Bengal:

i.The Main Port of West Bengal is Kolkata Port & Haldia port.

ii.However anchoring of ocean-going vessels is not possible as the depth of the Hooghly river is shallow.

iii.So in order to export their products business commodities in Kolkata and Asansol-Durgapur industrial region are taken to Paradip Port, Odisha, which is a major reason for decline of shipping growth in West Bengal.

iv.The Tajpur Deep Sea Port is expected to improve the Shipping Growth in the state.

About West Bengal:

Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) – Ballavpur WLS, Buxa WLS, Chapramari WLS, Sundarbans WLS

Ports – Kolkata Port, Haldia Port