India to spend 7.5 bln for container port in West Bengal

KOLKATA (Reuters) - India will spend 7.5 billion rupees to set up a container port in West Bengal, shipping minister T.R. Baalu said on Monday.

The first phase of the project will be completed by 2011/12, he told reporters.

The port will have initial capacity to handle one million tonnage equivalent units of container traffic and on completion 6.4 million tonnage equivalent units, the minister said.

"The port will meet infrastructure needs for container traffic in eastern and north eastern regions of the country," he said.

He, however, did not say on how the project will be funded.