: Hopes revived for early grounding of the Ramayapatnam seaport as a Central project in the wake of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust, a major stakeholder in the second public sector sea port sanctioned for Andhra Pradesh, reportedly finding Dugarajapatnam, the site selected for the project, “technically infeasible and economically unviable.”
Visakhapatnam is the only major port in the State now. The second Central port sanctioned by the Centre could not be proceeded with in view of security and environmental concerns raised over Dugarajapatnam selected by the then ruling Congress after the State Cabinet had cleared the proposal.
“Our concerns over the suitability of Dugarajapatnam stand vindicated now,” Prakasam District Development Forum President Ch. Ranga Rao said reacting to the report on viability of Dugarajapatnam that appeared in a section of the media.
A seaport at Ramayapatnam along with a super thermal power plant with coal imported from Indonesia would go a long way in developing the backward Prakasam district, opined Forum for Good Governance leader Shamsheer Ahamad.
CPI(M) wants govt.
to act decisively
With questions raised over the feasibility of developing as many as 14 seaports under the public-private partnership mode on the east coast, the State government should shed its indecisiveness on finalising the site for the State’s second major Central port project by preferring the non-controversial Ramayapatnam instead of Dugarajapatnam located close to the Pulicat lake, a haven for migratory birds as also the ISRO’s SHAR centre at Sriharikota,said said CPI(M) Prakasam district secretary K. Aruna.
Giving nod to the Dugarajapatnam port project proposal also meant objections from private port operator in Krishnapatnam, in whose Exclusive Economic Zone it fell, explained Andhra Pradesh State Prawn Farmers’ Welfare Association Secretary A. Kondal Rayudu. In the case of Dugarajapatnam, the cash-strapped State government had to chip in with funds for land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement and development of external infrastructure like road and rail connectivity.
The fledgling State might have problems in getting funds from the Centre for other projects, but the delay in clearing the site for the second port already sanctioned by the Centre would be costly at a time when work on the Sagar port project in West Bengal had already started, CPI(M) district secretary P. Anjaneyulu noted, adding that the party along with like-minded political parties and civil society organisations would step up stir to press for a Central port at Ramayapatnam.
The Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) Ltd had already conducted a fresh feasibility study at Ramayapatnam and the district administration had already identified about 3,000 acres of land at Ramayapatnam for the first phase of the project.
