The proposal of the Puducherry government to develop a satellite port of the Chennai Port Trust here appears to be facing a hurdle with the Government and Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi taking different stands on the issue.
While Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy has proposed to engage in developing the port, Ms. Bedi has pointed out that the port development would aggravate the problem.
Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Friday chaired a meeting with officials of the port department to evolve an action plan to develop the Puducherry port.
Mr. Narayanasamy told The Hindu that the government was keen to develop the port and commence operations. He had given specific instructions to the officials to take up the clearing of solid waste at the sea mouth separately and ensure that it did not drain into the sea.
‘No going back’
The government had requested Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to formally launch the port operations, he said.
Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy said that all aspects of the port project as part of developing the Union Territory were discussed. There was no going back on the proposal to develop the port, he said.
Ms. Bedi has flagged the project as a problematic one in its current form of execution. She tweeted calling beach depletion as one of the two “entrenched legacies of Puducherry” (the other reference being the MBBS/PG admissions conundrum). Stating that beach nourishment would give Puducherry its pristine beach back, she stressed the need for eternal vigilance by all stakeholders to increase tourism and strengthen revenue generation.
Ms. Bedi mentioned that “the beach restoration would be an everlasting problem since the root cause of the problem is due to blocking of sand movement by the improperly designed port. If the port is going to be ‘developed’ further the problem may increase.
“Puducherry will have to eternally invest in sand nourishment and for the politicians it is a golden egg laying which will yield gold to them forever. The amount of money that would be spent on the sand nourishment, if diverted to the welfare of fishermen and if the port can be developed into an alternative tourist spot, it can have both an ecological and economic development which are the pillars of sustainable development.