The Orissa government has relaxed a vital clause in its MoU with the Hyderabad based Navayuga Engineering Company Limited enabling the latter to sign concession agreement with it for developing an all weather port at Astaranga in Puri district.

Mr Naveen Patnaik CM of Orissa has approved a proposal of the state Commerce and Transport department to allow the waiver of the clause no 6(b) also known as clearance clause in the MoU.

The clause stated that the developer has to obtain all the statutory clearances before signing the concession agreement.

Expressing its desire to sign the concession agreement at the earliest so as to expedite the project work, the company had sought the waiver of this clause. NECL had pleaded before the government that it should be allowed to sign the concession agreement without obtaining all the statutory clearances as was the case with other port developers who have signed similar pacts with the state government.

The company signed the MoU with the state government on December 22nd 2008 and the concession agreement is required to be signed within a year unless extended by the state government.

Meanwhile, the government has prepared the draft concession agreement for the Astaranga port and it will be sent to the chief minister for in-principle approval, after which the draft will be sent for vetting by the finance and law departments before seeking comments of the developer on the draft.

NECL intends to invest INR 1500 crore for the port project in the first phase, INR 2000 crore in the second phase and INR 2,500 crore in the third phase taking the total investment to INR 6000 crore.

(Sourced from Business Standard)