integrated coastal zone management project west ... - Iczmpwb.org

20Bengal. The port handles over 28 million tons of cargo every year. It has a modern docksystem for handling large vessels. Other facilities include a full-fledged container handlingfacility and a jetty for handling bulk chemicals. Haldia maintains a nominal ship-waitingperiod and a low turn round time for vessels. The dock complex is connected throughNational Highway 41. The port has been on a forefront of privatisation. Two of its berthshave been leased to leading enterprises and a large number of leading organisations arekeenly interested in leasing facilities as well as leasing land for setting up port facilities. TheDock System has two riverine oil jetties and eight berths inside an impounded dock.Ground Water35. In the coastal area of West Bengal a clay blanket of 20 – 30m thickness is generallypresent below which brackish water aquifers occur within 120 m depth in the western part ofHugli river and within 150 – 180 m in the eastern part of it. A group of fresh water aquifersoccur in coastal tract of East Medinipur within the depth span of 120-360 m sandwichedbetween saline/brackish water aquifers. In the extreme south-eastern part of the coastal beltbrackish water aquifers occur within 360m depth. The fresh and brackish water aquifers areseparated by a 15 – 20m thick impervious clay layer.36. In the Digha-Ramnagar area of East Medinipur district, a shallow fresh water aquiferexists down to a depth of 12 m bgl in the sediments of present day dunes from which watermay not percolate downward due to the presence of underlying thick plastic clay. An area of150 sq km around Contai, Purba Medinipur district, aquifers contain brackish to saline waterat various depths except those near surface and sand dune aquifers. Also in some localizedpockets in South 24 Parganas district, sand horizons within a zone of 20 – 50m at the tophaving fresh water occur. The distribution of salt water – fresh water aquifers in the coastaltract is generally uniform with fresh ground water overlying saline ground water underneath.37. The Haldia region is important from the point of view of ground water utilization in arapidly growing coast based industrial hub of West Bengal. Drilling for ground water withinthe Haldia Industrial complex area reveals that sediments down to a depth of 115 b.g.l. aregenerally argillaceous in nature with few sand horizons with brackish to saline water. Belowthe depth of about 115 metres, the sediments are by and large arenaceous down to depths oflittle over 300 m. These sandy aquifers contain fresh ground water. Below the depth of 30520