ONGOLE: The Prakasam District Development Forum on Monday urged Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu to urge the Centre to take up the second major Central project in Ramayapatnam without any delay.
The fledgling State has suffered a lot in the wake of “unscientific” bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh and the promised benefits from the Centre not accruing to the State as expected, its president Ch. Ranga Rao told a press conference here on Monday.
A resolution should be immediately adopted in the Assembly recommending the case of Ramayapatnam to the Centre as the Dugarajapatnam port site has been found to be unviable by Ernst & Young, a global consultant appointed by the Visakhapatnam Port Trust(VPT), a major stakeholder.
Releasing copies of the report by the consultant to the VPT obtained under the provisions of the Right to Information Act to the media here, he said: “According to the consultant, VPT has to extend a maximum grant of Rs. 3,782 crore in a pessimistic traffic scenario and a minimum grant of Rs. 1,475 crore in an optimistic scenario if the project is located at Dugarajapatnam.”
Communist Party of India district secretary K. Aruna said her party along with other like-minded parties and civil society organisations would step up agitation for location of the port at Ramayapatnam without any further loss of time, as work on another major Central port at Sagar Islands in West Bengal had already picked up pace and scheduled to be completed by 2019.
A major port at Dugarajapatnam, mentioned in the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, could not be proceeded with as it was considered unviable in view of its proximity to Krishnapatnam and Chennai ports, Acharya N.G. Ranga Kisan Samstha secretary Ch. Seshaiah said.
Dugarajapatnam was also close to ISRO’s satellite launching centre at Sriharikota, and Pulicat lake, said another Forum leader Kanaka Rao Madiga.
Expressing concern over the “inordinate delay” in taking up the Ramayapatnam port project, National Investment and Manufacturing Zone(NIMZ), Donakonda industrial park and other big ticket projects, forum leader N. Ravikumar exhorted the elite sections of people to lead a relentless struggle for the development of the backward district.
