Following is an excerpt from  a report in Financial Express.

The Public-Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPAC) on Friday approved two port projects worth Rs 1,008 crore proposed by the department of shipping, in a meeting chaired by economic affairs secretary Ashok Chawla.

The two projects, Rs 467-crore deep drought coal berth and Rs 541-crore deep drought iron ore berth, will come up at the Paradip port on a build-operate and transfer basis. The port situated near Kolkata serves the vast hinterland spread over the Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

"The projects will be awarded by early 2009 and the construction will be over within three years of awarding of the projects," said a top official in the department of shipping.

"The cargo, which is brought at Paradip port largely comprises coal and iron ore. Keeping this in view, the expansion aims at accommodating the extra large vessels. Dredging and construction of railway line will also be done as a part of the expansion plan," he added.

… The port registered an all-time record annual traffic of 42.44 million tonne during the year 2007-08.