Two sites that have been selected so far are Jiggerkhali and Kokrahari, situated north of Hadia and opposite Raichak.

The location of the Diamond Harbour port further south of the Kolkata Dock and its 9-meter depth would have solved most of the KoPT's problems, but the non-availability of land had made things difficult, said KoPT officials.

“The project was to come up on a 125-acre plot, of which, 43 acre belonged to the Defence Ministry. We still have not received the permission to acquire it,” said Asin Mukherjee of the KoPT.

Besides 43 acres, officials said that acquiring the rest of the land — including 15 acres from the state government, 40 acres from private owners and 27 acres from the Department of Lighthouses and Light Ships — would not have been a problem.

In fact, district magistrate of South 24 Parganas had called an all-party meeting in September, 2008, to facilitate acquisition of the land, but the Defence Ministry's non-committal attitude had made things difficult.

“The project, at an estimated cost of more than Rs 1,233 crore, would have had four ship-handling jetties and three barge-handling jetties,” said Mukherjee.

But the alternative port near Raichak is now expected to be a multi-purpose terminal with two jetties at Kokrahati and six at Jiggerkhali.