Jagan lays foundation stone for Machilipatnam Port

Machilipatnam Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday laid the foundation stone for Machilipatnam Port first phase work at a cost of Rs.5,156 crore.

Describing the event as a red letter day, he said the port once made operational will change the face of Krishna district and neighbouring areas with accelerated development.

The port will have facilities to handle general cargo, coal, multipurpose and containers. It will have four berths in the first phase in an area of 1923 acres to handle throughput of 35.12 million tonnes.

The Chief Minister said the construction will be completed in 24 to 30 months to provide direct and indirect jobs to 25,000 people. Once fully operational depending on freight demand, it will have 16 berths with a handling capacity of 116 million tonnes.

Machilipatnam Port will tap export and import cargo from huge hinterland spread over Krishna, Guntur, Krishna, NTR, East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh and Khammam, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Adilabad and Warangal districts of Telangana.

The government aims to achieve USD20 billion blue economy by 2035 by focusing on port-led development all around the 974-km long coastline, the second largest in India after Gujarat. Presently, six operational ports including the sole major port operated by Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA) have a combined capacity of 320 million tonnes. Both Gangavaram and Krishnapatnam Ports, which were developed by the State Government under the PPP route, have been acquired by Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ).

The operation of sea-bound cargo at the four new ports being developed under the aegis of AP Maritime Board (APMB) through private participation is expected to add a capacity of 110 million tonnes by 2025-26.

For giving a fillip to port-led development, the government has already identified 4,000 acres of salt lands in the periphery of Machilipatnam Port for allowing industrial investment so as to accelerate development in the region.

Immediately after the ground-breaking ceremony, the construction work commenced so as to complete it before the scheduled time. Andhra Pradesh at present has six operational ports at Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Kakinada and Krishnapatnam and construction is in progress for greenfield ports at Mulapeta (Srikakulam) Ramayapatnam and a gateway port at Kakinada. Visakhapatnam and Kakinada have two ports each.

Industries Minister Gudivada Amarnath said under the visionary leadership of Jagan Mohan Reddy, port-led development has been given top priority in the New Industrial Development Policy, which was unveiled sometime ago.