Bhubaneswar: The proposed all-weather multipurpose port near the Subarnarekha river mouth in Balasore district has received environmental clearance of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The project is to be developed by Chennai-based Creative Port Development Limited (CPDL), and a company has been formed under the banner of Subarnarekha Port Private Limited (SPPL). Earlier, the MoEF had held up the environment clearance. However, the project proponent submitted detailed documents, and the EAC, taking all the parameters including turtle nesting, forests, marine sanctuaries, mangroves, tourist place and shore line changes into consideration, decided to give the Environment and Coastal Zone Regulations (CRZ) clearance. The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) was roped in to take care of demarcation of High Tide Zone (HTZ), Low Tide Zone (LTZ) and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ). The state forest and environment department had already recommended environment clearance to the MoEF on March 31, 2011. The recommendation was made after the Odisha State Coastal Zone Management Authority (OSCZMA) scrutinized the project proponent’s Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study. CPDL had signed a MoU for the project with the state government in December 2006 and entered into a concession agreement on January 11, 2008. The proposed site of 915 acres of land mainly comprises inter-tidal land, partly with or without scrub and casuarinas. In addition, an area of 750 acres of land would be reclaimed for port development purpose. A dedicated rail/road corridor would be developed in an area of 1,565.93 acres. The port in phase I would have an initial capacity of handling 25 million tones per annum, which would be scaled up to 35 MTPA in phase II. EAC has asked the project proponent to spend five per cent of the project cost towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with a time-bound action plan.