We are playing a key role in PM Gati Shakti, says VPA top brass

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA), one of the premier ports in the country with a huge hinterland spread over Telangana, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, has initiated several measures under the PM's Gati Shakti Master Plan to contribute significantly to becoming a $5 trillion economy.

PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for Multimodal connectivity especially a digital platform aims to bring 16 ministries including Railways and Roadways to implement and coordinate various infrastructure projects to improve connectivity and remove bottlenecks to bring down cost of logistics drastically.

Speaking at an interactive meet with the stakeholders here at VPA Sagarmala Convention Hall here on Thursday, VPA Chairman K. Rama Mohana Rao said reducing logistics cost by improving the connectivity and ensuring faster evacuation of cargo has become the focus area. VPA Deputy Chairman Durgest Dubey and Divisional Railway Manager Anup Satpathy and others were present. Among others, Aarti Saxena, Additional Commissioner Customs, Prakash Gaur, Project Director, NHAI, Dilip Kumar Gupta, MD, Sagarmala Development Company and K. Muralidharan, CEO, AP Maritime Board spoke at the event held on hybrid model.

The VPA Chairman in his address outlined the various advantages of the Gati Shakti in making the Indian economy to $5 trillion by 2025. In tune with the Government of India planning, VPA has taken up several steps to create/augment infrastructure and services to ease the logistics and Ease of Living at Visakhapatnam.

During a media interaction later, he said the second container terminal being developed under PPP mode by J.M. Baxi Group with an investment of Rs.633 crore is being made operational.

The second terminal will increase the traffic in the existing two-lane road from East Breakwater to Convent Junction. To facilitate hassle-free movement of container cargo from both the terminals and development of existing 2-lane road to 4-lane road from East Breakwater to Convent Junction were taken up at an estimated cost of Rs.68 crore. This will connect to the newly constructed grade separator which in turn leads to NHAI.