Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) and Sagar Mala project proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would take port-based development in Andhra Pradesh to the centre-stage, said Visakhapatnam Port Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu on Thursday.
Delivering the theme address at the third edition of East Coast Maritime Business Summit organised here by ‘Maritime Gateway’ in collaboration with Visakhapatnam Port and Visakha Container Terminal, he admitted negligence of East Coast compared to West Coast in encouraging maritime-based industries.
Referring to Sagar Mala, he expressed optimism that the ambitious project would help augment infrastructure in the hinterland of various ports and encourage mega infrastructure projects to spur growth. He said the Centre was also planning developing a dedicated freight corridor between Visakhapatnam and New Delhi via Raipur and transforming Visakhapatnam into a transhipment hub for faster evacuation of cargo.
He said as per projections made by International Monetary Fund, India would emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in next two years. He said the ‘Look East’ policy would act as catalyst for accelerating growth.
Key factors
On phenomenal development of maritime sector in Gujarat, he said its maritime policy and constitution of State Maritime Board were the key factors for handling export and import cargo 397 million tonne per annum and advocated emulating Gujarat’s success in AP.
Earlier, at a round-table of CEOs, the port users sought escort service for investors as facilitators and reduction of regulatory regime.
They wanted development of infrastructure for better connectivity and faster movement of cargo.
Joint Managing Director of J.M. Baxi Group Vir K. Kotak called for improving linkages with the ports and mooted route rationalisation to reduce cargo evacuation cost and time.
Customs Commissioner C. Rajendran said Visakhapatnam would emerge as a logistics hub with the development of multi-modal container freight stations by CONCOR and Balmer Lawrie.
Nepal Consul General Chandra Kumar Ghimire, Kolkata Port Deputy Chairman Manish Jain and Maritime Gateway editor Ramprasad spoke.
