Review committee set to clear Rs 41,000 crore Nicobar Port project

KOLKATA: A high-powered committee (HPC) formed to scrutinise the environmental clearance (EC) given to the Centre’s ambitious Great Nicobar transshipment port project is likely to give its all-clear to the proposed project, which has been halted since April, multiple senior officials told .

On April 3, the Kolkata Bench of the NationalGreenTribunal(NGT)puta two-month stay on any further work in the EC granted to the project. The Rs 41,000 crore project would be on hold until the NGT-appointed committee scrutinises the green approvalgrantedbytheCentre,read theorder.

The committee was given two months to scrutinise “unanswered deficiencies” in the EC, which allegedly failed to address severe environmental and regulatory concerns related to the development of the mega port, which the Centre aims at building in a public-private partnershipmode.

Mango Exports to US double, realisation high

MUMBAI: Mango exports to the US have crossed 2,000 tonne in the current season, up from 891 tonne in the 2022-23 season. The exports of Banganpalli and Kesar varieties have commenced this season to South Korea, another high value market. Exports to the United Kingdom is currentlybeingundertaken.

Exporters said that Alphonso and Kesar varieties have been sold in the US market at a premium of $ 9/a kg and$7/akgrespectively.

Trade sources said that one of the factors behind the spike in mango exportstotheUSandtheUKthisyear has been the low cost of air freight rates, which rose sharply in the last few years because of the pandemic, has‘normalised’sincethen.

“The price gap between an Indian mango and those sourced from South American countries has reduced and because Indian mangoes are sent through air freight, its aroma and freshness is preserved while mangoes from South America is transported through road to the USA,” Kaushal Khakhar, CEO, Kay Bee Exports, one of the leading Mango Exporter from Maharashtrasaid.

Officials said that the irradiation facility at Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation, Ahmedabad, along with similar facilities at Vashi (Navi Mumbai), Nasik and Bengaluru has helped expand mango exports to a high value market such as the United States. The Agricultural and Processed Food Products DevelopmentAuthority(APEDA)has assisted state government agencies in setting up vapour heat treatment facilities in Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Vashi (Maharashtra), Nuzvid and Tirupati(AndhraPradesh).