By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 10, 2015 :

More than a decade after the faceoff between Odisha government and Paradip Port Trust [PPT] on the issue of land, both the parties finally have arrived at an amicable settlement ending the protracted legal battle.
Later Biju Patnaik, during his first term as Odisha chief minister in 1962 took the initiative to construct Paradip Port Project after acquiring the required land under Kujang Tahasil by spending an approximate Rs 30 crore. The then prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehuru inaugurated the Port in 1962.

However, the Indian government took over the Port in 1965 on state government’s request as the latter was faced with financial crunch and could not invest further for the Port’s development.

The PPT in due course paid the initial amount invested by the state government towards construction of Port, formal transfer of land within the Port limits spreading over the four revenue villages i.e., Sandhakud, Nua-Sandhakud, Bijayachandrapur and Bhitaragarh, has not been effected over the years on the technical issue of whether the land will vest automatically in PPT or whether PPT has to obtain a lease from Government.

As the dispute between both the state government and PPT escalated, the PPT filed a writ petition before the High Court, which passed a status quo order over the entire Port land in 2003.

The High Court latter constituted a High Powered Committee at State level under the Chairmanship of the state chief secretary, with representatives of state government, union ministry of shipping, and PPT chairman, to resolve the land related issues for an out of Court settlement.

The Committee has finally settled the entire disputes amicably, officials said. The entire land excluding a few patches within the declared Port limits will be transferred to PPT without any lease, the committee decided. Among other decisions include as below :

1. Government of Odisha will keep 142.8 acres in the above four revenue villages within the Port limits for their use (40.00 acres for Housing Board and 30.62 acres for Fishery Department in village Sandhakud, 23.79 acres for Irrigation Department and 8.39 acres for NAC market and Biju Memorial Hospital in village Bhitargarh and 40.00 acres of land in village Nua-Sandhakud).
2. The extent of 158.52 acres of land in revenue village Bhitargarh which is at present an approach road to PPL would be developed as multi modal transport corridor (including rail corridor) on mutual consent.
3. 405.00 acres of land in revenue village Bhitaragarh with PPL would remain with PPL and Port would not claim equal extent of land.
4. 50.00 acres of land in revenue village Bhitaragarh will be alienated in favour of housing and urban development department, for Solid Waste Management Project.
5. The remaining area of 6285.54 acres (Sandhakud 4356.03 acres, Bhitaragarh 1477.38 acres, Bijayachandrapur 57.73 acres and Nuasandhakud 394.40 acres) would be transferred or alienated without any lease in favour of PPT.
6. Any new accreditation of land within the notified Port limits will be considered for handing over to PPT to compensate for the loss due to erosion after the land is surveyed properly following due process of law.
7. Only in case of land being transferred to PPT exceeds 6382.07 acres (against which PPT has already made payment), the Port would pay the land value fixed by the State Government.

Since the matter is sub-judice, both PPT and the state government would file a joint affidavit in the High Court outlining the amicable settlement of land issues including the details of land to be settled with PPT and retained by the state government, officials added.