A bill will be tabled in the Assembly to constitute A. P. Maritime Board to give a boost to port-based development along the 970-odd-km coastline in the State, the second largest after Gujarat, A. P. Energy, Infrastructure and Investment Secretary Ajay Jain has said.
He said that Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra had already constituted the board.
“Once it is constituted, a long-awaited demand of the shipping industry will be fulfilled,” he said.
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The decision to set up the board was hailed immediately by Andhra Chamber of Commerce & Industry Federation vice-president G. Sambasiva Rao and CII Vizag zone chairman Neeraj Sarda.
Speaking at a panel discussion on port-led development as part of launching of Infrastructure Mission here, Mr. Jain said that the government was contemplating launching 139 mega projects with an investment of $207 billion in the next five years.
He said that it was also decided to develop the 1,078-km-long Buckingham Canal connecting Kakinada with Puducherry, identified as Inland Waterway 4, to facilitate passenger as well as freight traffic.
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Stating that A. P. would be showcased for investments with Sunrise State as the USP on the lines of ‘Vibrant Gujarat’, he said that in the Union Budget, optic fibre grid had been sanctioned for the State as a pilot project.
Mr. Jain said that the government would set up Optic Fibre Development Corporation soon.
He said Visakhapatnam would be developed into a gateway port, and added that the Asian Development Bank had promised to fund $600 million in the first phase for the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor.
He said that the government was pinning high hopes on mobilising more investments with another proposal to develop the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.
Bill to be tabled in Assembly on Maritime Board