Stir for location of Central port in Prakasam to be stepped up

Two-day vehicle yatra by PDDF to drum up support for Ramayapatnam port

A panoramic view of Ramayapatnam, which is in contention for location of a sea port and ship building unit, in Prakasam district.

The Prakasam District Development Forum will spearhead a two-day vehicle yatra, covering different parts of the district, to Ramayapatnam from January 20 to press for a central sea port and ship building unit to spur industrial growth in the backward district.

The yatra to be led by PDDF president Ch. Ranga Rao will see participation of activists cutting across party lines in cars and motorcycles from Devarampadu, where freedom fighter Prakasam Pantulu had launched Salt Satyagraha, to drum up public support for the project in each and every village en-route.

''This will be the beginning of a big struggle for location of the second central port sanctioned for Andhra Pradesh by the Centre in Prakasam district,” Mr. Rao said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

It was unwise to stick on to the Dugarajapatnam site which faced environmental and security concerns in view of its nearness to SHAR centre and the avian paradise of Pulicat lake, bordering Tamil Nadu.

“There is no point in clinging on to the Dugarajapatnam project site after a global consultancy firm engaged by the Visakhapatnam Port Trust found it unviable even in an optimistic traffic scenario,” opined Andhra Pradesh State Prawn Farmers' Welfare Association secretary A. Kondal Rayudu.

‘No hurdles’

Pointing out that work on the first central port project was going on at a brisk pace at Sagar Islands in West Bengal, Communist Party of India Prakasam district secretary K. Aruna said the fledgling State which faced bifurcation-related problems, could ill-afford this costly delay.

The State might be having problems in getting all the promised concessions, including the Special Category Status, but nothing prevented it from taking up the port project in Ramayapatnam, which was very close to the Chennai-Kolkata highway and the Howrah-Chennai main railway line, she said.

“We will mobilise people in a big way by also highlighting the inadequate allocation for the Veligonda project and the neglect of other big ticket projects promised by the ruling TDP,” Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam district secretary V. Hanuma Reddy said.