Govt, Dubai firm ink agreement, work to start in April
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 7: The first-ever Dry Port in Jammu and Kashmir will come up at the border town of Samba for which the State Government and Dubai Ports Group today inked a pact for a joint venture involving maiden Rs 1,500 crore Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for setting up inland logistic hubs in Jammu and Srinagar capital cities.
Official sources told the Excelsior that 100 acres land near Samba Railway Station was today identified for setting up the Dry Port, which would be set up in total 500 acres land. Rest of 400 acres land would be provided in due course of time.
Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu, who had mooted the idea of setting up Dry Port in the State, told the Excelsior that another team from Dubai would visit Samba on Monday for site inspection and work on the project would start in April.
“The work is likely to be completed between 18 to 24 months,” he said, adding the project would cost Rs 1500 crore.
On Samba being close to the International Border, sources said, all aspects have been taken into consideration before finalizing the land for first Dry Port in Jammu and Kashmir.
They disclosed that Jammu and Kashmir Government will provide land as equity on 90 years lease to the company.
“The MoU was finalised for Joint Venture involving maiden Rs 1,500 crore Foreign Direct Investment. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up inland logistic hubs in Jammu and Srinagar, as a Joint Venture between Dubai Ports and the Jammu and Kashmir Government, was finalised at the delegation level talks between Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem-led DP World team and Dr Haseeb Drabu-led State Government team,” sources said.
A high-level delegation of the Dubai Ports Group (DP World) led by its Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem arrived by a chartered flight here this morning to discuss the modalities for setting up inland logistics hubs in Jammu and Srinagar.
Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and his team held separate meetings with Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu and Industries Minister Chander Prakash Ganga, followed by delegation level parleys with the concerned Ministers and officials.
“The visit of Dubai Ports Group delegation follows the announcement made by the Finance Minister in his budget speech in the State Legislature last month about the Government’s plan to attract foreign investment by setting up dry ports in the State to boost local economy,” sources said.
Commerce Minister Chander Prakash Ganga, Principal Secretary Finance, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Principal Secretary Industries, Shailendra Kumar and other officials of the concerned departments were present at the delegation-level meeting.
The meeting deliberated in detail on the parameters of the MoU.
The MoU is to be subsequently signed by the Government of India with the Government of UAE to facilitate setting up the first inland logistics hub in Jammu and Kashmir.
To begin with, 100 acres of land would be offered by the State Government near Railway Station Samba as equity in the joint venture for setting up the logistics hub in Jammu region and around 100 acres of land would be earmarked near Ompora, Budgam for a similar facility in Kashmir.
The logistics hubs to be established in Jammu and Kashmir with maiden Foreign Direct Investment of around Rs 1,500 crore by Dubai Ports would include two dry ports, warehouses, cold storage chain, controlled atmospheric stores and supply chain to transport commodities and products including horticulture and agriculture produce, handicrafts and industrial products from the State directly to the markets throughout the world.
“One of the major problems of J-K economy is high cost of transportation of goods and products. We have to get our fruit, agriculture produce, handicrafts and industrial products in trucks to outside world.
“If we get a dry port and cold chain, the commodities can move through an integrated transport chain. This will bring down the cost of transportation by 20 per cent to 25 per cent giving a major fillip to the state economy,” said Drabu.
He said a dry port, also called an inland port or multimodal logistics centre, is an inland terminal connected to a seaport by rail or road.
It serves as trans-shipment point in transport of export/import goods and is named so because it is very similar to a seaport in services it offers except that it is not near a sea.
Dubai Ports is operating 78 marine and inland terminals supported by over 50 related businesses in 40 countries across six continents with a significant presence in both high-growth and mature markets.
Meanwhile, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dubai Ports, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem called on Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti here today.
During the meeting, Sulayem briefed the Chief Minister about his idea of setting up a dry port which would help the produce from the State reach the global market through an integrated transportation chain.
The Chief Minister hoped that with the setting up of such a facility in the State, the horticultural produce and handicrafts would get a big boost in terms of marketability and timely carriage to potential buyers.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, Minister for Industries and Commerce Chander Prakash Ganga, Minister for Finance Haseeb Drabu and Minister for IT, Youth Services and Sports Moulvi Imran Raza Ansari were also present at the meeting.
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