Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government is moving swiftly on developing a non-major port at Ramayapatnam in Prakasam district.
After giving a formal go-ahead for the development of the port in September, the government will be kick-starting the project soon.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is expected to lay the foundation for Ramayapatnam port at this month-end.
In the past, the state government had recommended the developme-nt of a major port at Ramayapatnam and had sought the Union shipping ministry’s proposal, but the proposal was turned down by the Centre. Now the state government wants to develop a non-major port at Ramayapatnam and had principally gi-ven an approval in September.
A GO was also issued in this regard. The state government had also decided to amend the ex-clusive limits of Krishn-apatnam port in Nellore district to enable the de-velopment of Ramayapatnam port. The Director of Ports was also engaged to prepare the necessary Detailed Project Report (DPR) to dev-elop the Ramayapatnam port and also start basic work to obtain necessa-ry clearances from various agencies.
The Government of India (GoI) had constituted a Technical Committee in the year 2011 to explore the possibility of establishing a second major port in Andhra Pradesh. The committee submitted their feasibility report proposing three locations — Nakkapalli, Ramayapatnam and Du-ggirajapatnam.
Based on the report of the Technical Commi-ttee, the government of AP in 2012, had recommended to GoI for the establishment of the second major port at Ramayapatnam.
However, the GoI vide Andhra Pradesh Re-Organisation Act 2014 had proposed to establi-sh the second major po-rt at Duggirajapatnam. Later, in 2015, the state government appointed M/s. RITES to prepare the Techno-Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) for the establishment of a non-major port at Ramayapatnam through Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (INCAP).
RITES had submitted the final TEFR on Sept-ember 19, 2017, wherein it had recommended th-at the establishment of the port at Ramayapa-tnam was techno-economically viable.
“The Director of Ports’ office is readying the ground work to call for agencies to prepare a DPR to develop a non-major port at Ramaya-patnam since it is established that a port there would be technically and economically viable. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister will set the foundation which is expected to happen this month-end positively,” said a senior official of energy, Infrastructure and Investments Department.
