Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport, and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday announced allocation of Rs.8,400 crore to Andhra Pradesh under the Sagarmala project.
After a whirlwind tour of projects being undertaken by the Visakhapatnam Port Trust and a meeting with the stakeholders, he told reporters that A.P. would be accorded top priority in encouraging port-led development and improvement in connectivity.
Navigational canalOf the Rs.8,400 crore, a sum of Rs.3,000 crore would be spent on LNG terminal at Kakinada, Rs.100 crore for additional oil jetty at the Visakhapatnam Port. The Union Minister also announced the development of a petroleum cluster at Kakinada, stacking yard at Visakhapatnam, and facilities at Vadarevu.
Mr. Gadkari said he would speak to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday to launch work on revival of the 796-km-long freshwater navigational canal from Kakinada to Puducherry under inland waterways development project.
“I want that work should start on this project on a fast-track basis within three months,” he said.
During the meeting with Mr. Naidu, he said he would discuss how to give an impetus to port-led and inland waterways development.
Under Sagarmala, he said the NDA Government would spend Rs.12 lakh crore in phases – Rs.4 lakh crore on road and railway connectivity and Rs.8 lakh crore on developing 27 industrial clusters.
Port management systems were being improved to improve efficiency parameters. Use of IT as an important tool for seamless connectivity was being used.
He said the Centre had decided to set up a company to implement various projects being taken up under the Sagarmala project. Due to improvement in efficiency parameters, the ports and Shipping Corporation of India had earned a profit of over Rs.6,000 crore last year.
During the visit, Mr. Gadkari was accompanied by State Transport Minister Sidda Raghava Rao and HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, and VPT Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu.
