After horrifying experience of Hudhud, major industrial units in Visakhapatnam have revived their operations and they will achieve normal production only after three to six months.
“Vizagites have strong will power taking Hudhud as a challenge. Now everyone has to put up their best efforts to rebuild Vizag and make it an industrial and financial hub,” said CII Vizag zone chairman and former Deputy Chairman of Visakhapatnam Port G.V.L. Satya Kumar.
NTPC Simhadri at Parawada is way ahead of others in producing power from all the four units, each with a capacity of 500 MW. HPCL Visakh Refinery, which as a precautionary measure shutdown a day before Hudhud hit the coast, has resumed refining.
Visakhapatnam port, despite suffering huge losses due to damage caused to offshore crude terminal and south breakwater, reopened the port for cargo handling within three days of nature’s fury that was witnessed on October 12. As repair to offshore crude terminal will take six months, HPCL is receiving imported crude at Single Point Mooring.
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, which launched restart operation after getting power from AP Transco, received yet another setback when its Captive Thermal Power Plant tripped. “We are making all-out efforts for steelmaking,” says an official.
After an interactive session with IT entrepreneurs, IT Advisor S. Satyanarayana and APIIC Chairman P. Krishnaiah have promised measures to promote Brand Vizag and hold more roadshows to attract investments.
Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City and pharma units in the region have sustained a loss of over Rs.500 crore. However, due to timely intervention, power and water supply have been restored and production has been revived. IT units at Rushikonda SEZ have also restarted their operations.
Extensive damageHindustan Shipyard Ltd and Heavy Plates and Vessels Plant (BHEL) have received extensive damage in the aftermath of the cyclone. The reopening of the INS Dega airport to international flights is a welcome development.
“We need better bandwidth, data backup facility and campuses by big players to enhance our brand value,” Symbiosys Technologies CEO Naresh Kumar has said.
