Report by Orissa Diary correspondent; Bhubaneswar: Gopalpur Port in Orissa will be fully operational by August 2010. The fair-weather port in Ganjam district is being developed as the all-weather port by Gopalpur Port Ltd (GPL), a consortium led by Orissa Stevedores Ltd (OSL).

The Orissa Minister of Transport and Commerce Sanjeev Sahoo, said detailed project report (DPR ) for the port has already been prepared. He said the statutory clearances like the environmental green signal have also been obtained by the developer.

The approval of the Orissa State Coastal Zone Management Authority (OSCZMA) is pending, he added. Gopalpur Port will be the second all-weather port after Paradip in Orissa coast. The state government had selected Gopalpur Port Ltd through the international competitive biddings (ICB) route and signed the Concessional Agreement (CA) on September 14, 2006. The existing fair-weather port was handed over to the developer on October 30, 2006.

According to the Concessional Agreement, Gopalpur Port Ltd will develop the port under BOOST (build, own, operate, share and transfer) basis. The all-weather port would handle 10 million tonne of cargo with an investment of Rs 1700 crore.