AP will develop 974-km coastline: Jagan

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday said the State Government is taking transformative steps to develop the 974-km long coastline, the largest after Gujarat, to give a fillip to port-led development.

He attended the two-day Maritime India Summit 2021, which was earlier inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, virtually from his camp office.

"Today, I am proud to say that AP is ranked No.1 in the country in Ease of Doing Business rankings 2020 released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and one of the factors that contributed to this achievement is the State Government's consistent efforts in developing port infrastructure, supporting the ecosystem and encouraging port-led industrialisation.

AP has one major port in Visakhapatnam, five functional ports and 10 other notified State ports with world-class facilities that handle more than 170 million tonne of cargo per annum, second only to Gujarat. "AP shares 4 per cent of total Indian exports and we aim to reach 10 per cent share by 2030," Reddy said. In recent times, several industrial nodes have come up in the State, with ports as the focal point for development. To further unlock this potential offered by the long coastline of AP, the State has undertaken development of three greenfield ports at Ramayapatnam, Machilipatnam and Bhavanapadu on an innovative model that mitigates all risks associated with greenfield port development, thereby making the port operation a risk free proposition for the private sector.

After the development of the port by the government, the operator of the port would be selected on a competitive bidding ensuring maximum revenue realisation. "These all-weather, deep-drafted ports are all set to be operational by 2023, creating an additional capacity of at least 100 million tonne of cargo per annum in the short-term, with a potential to grow leaps and bounds in the long term." he stated.

The Chief Minister pointed out that in order to ensure that the ports operate at their fullest capacities, the State has consciously taken steps to attract large investments in the sectors ranging from manufacturing, petrochemicals, food processing and pharmaceuticals which are port-dependent.