4 more ports to be developed

Move as part of state govt's plan to build maritime economy along seacoast

The Andhra Pradesh government has initiated steps to develop four more ports in the state as part of its plan to build maritime economy along the 1,000 km-long seacoast.

These ports include Bheemunipatnam in Visakhapatnam district, Machilipatnam in Krishna district, Nizampatnam in Guntur district and Vodarevu in Prakasam district. While Machilipatnam is an intermediate port, the other three are minor ports. Earlier, the government entrusted the development of Kakinada, Krishnapatnam and Gangavaram ports to private players.

Apart from this, the government is also exploring the possibility of establishing a ship-building unit at Bheemunipatnam port, officials told Business Standard.

The state government is keen to develop all the ports on the lines of Gujarat, which has a strong maritime base with 41 ports including one major and 11 intermediate ports. It has also decided to set up a maritime board similar to that in Gujarat for the development of port-based economy along the seacoast.

According to officials, L&T has been entrusted to prepare a roadmap for the development of Machilipatnam port. At present, L&T is preparing a master plan for the development of Kakinada Port (intermediate port), which is being run by private sector Kakinada Seaports Limited.

While Crisil has been entrusted to prepare a report for Bheemunipatnam port, the same for the remaining two ports has been given to RITES, officials said. According to officials, the government wants to develop these ports under private sector or under public-private partnership.

The state has two intermediate ports and 10 minor ports spread across eight coastal districts apart from one major port at Visakhapatnam.

While major ports are under the control of Government of India and are governed by Major Port Trust Act, 1963, intermediate and minor ports are under the control of the respective maritime state governments and are governed by the Indian Ports Act, 1908.

The developers of Krishnapatnam and Gangavaram ports are expected to achieve financial closures by June-July 2005. The first phase of the development of both the port facilities will be ready by early 2008, officials said.

Currently, Kakinada and Yanam ports are the working ports. Kakinada anchorage port has handled over 17.5 lakh tonnes of cargo (both exports and imports) whereas the deepwater port has handled about 104.7 lakh tonnes of cargo.

Ravva port (Surisena Yanam) handled over 28 lakh tonnes of crude oil during 2004-05. For the second consecutive year (2004-05), Andhra Pradesh stood second, the first being Gujarat, in cargo handling with a total of over 150 lakh tonnes.

The state government is aiming to more than double the current volumes of cargo handling through state ports by 2008. "We are confident of increasing the cargo to up to 400 lakh tonnes by 2008," N P Ramakrishna Reddy, additional secretary (ports), said.