Andhra Pradesh to Slash Logistics Costs by Half with Rs 20,000 Crore Infra Investment, Says Roads Minister

Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh government is aiming to transform the state into the biggest logistics gateway in South Asia.

With a Rs 20,000 crore plan, the government would attempt to cut logistic costs from 15.7 per cent to 7-8 per cent by building world-class infrastructure and “generating thousands of jobs.”

Stating this, roads minister B.C. Janardhan Reddy said on Friday that the government would concentrate on building better highways, ports and multimodal networks. "The ports in Andhra Pradesh are strong drivers of our economy, accounting for more than 5 per cent of the state’s GSDP and supporting nearly ten lakh jobs,” he said.

The minister said, “Between 2024 and 2025, Visakhapatnam Port handled 82.62 million tonnes of cargo, while the Krishnapatnam and Gangavaram ports over 54 million tonnes. The state is now among India’s top three cargo-handling states."

DVS Narayana Raju, chairman of CII Visakhapatnam, said the non-major ports handled over 117 million metric tonnes of import-export cargo per annum.

The state is also set to construct 1,040km of new highways and development of major transportation modes. The Budvel-Nellore corridor, along with the Vishakapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor rail line, would improve last-mile connectivity.

State maritime board chairman, D Satyanarayana, said the state was building an integrated port-led development model, which would feature six operational ports and three new greenfield ports at Machilipatnam, Ramayapatnam and Bhavanapadu.

The shipbuilding cluster at Nellore's Dugarajapatnam, being developed wat a cost of Rs 26,000 crore, might create more than 35,000 jobs, alongside bringing investments from large-scale manufacturing agents.

Officials are also focusing on green port practices, LNG bunkering and sustainable shipbuilding to cut foreign dependency and build skilled local jobs.

With Rs 9.2 lakh crore already alloted in investments, experts said Andhra Pradesh has the potential to become a global logistics hub.

Convener of the ports and logistics panel at CII Andhra Pradesh, Sambasiva Rao, said it was important to develop a complete logistics ecosystem that would extend beyond ports to include cold chain facilities, industrial parks and air cargo infrastructure.