Work on the construction of a housing colony in Nellore for the people displaced by the Ramayapatnam port project formally began on Saturday, with the construction of a Lord Ram temple.
District Collector K.V.N. Chakardhar Babu, along with YSR Congress Party MLA from Kandukur M. Mahidhar Reddy, laid the foundation stone for the colony. The work has been taken up under the improved Rehabilitation and Resettlement(R&R) scheme, four months after Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy performed the bhoomi puja.
‘Paving way for industrial development’
Speaking on the occasion, the Collector said that this, along with Krishnapatnam port, will accelerate industrial development of South Coastal Andhra Pradesh and generate employment for the people.
Meanwhile, work on the ₹3,560 crore-Ramayapatnam port project is going on at a brisk pace and is expected to be completed by December 2023, the Collector said.
Joint Collector R. Kurmanath, who was also present, said 111 displaced families were provided with ₹22.49 crore as part of the R&R package.
Appreciating the fishermen who parted with their land for the project, the officials said 450 acres of the required 850 acres have been acquired for the port so far.
The port will at first cater to undivided Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur and Kurnool districts in Andhra Pradesh and Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Hyderabad in Telangana. It will later cater to YSR Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh and other areas of Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, they said.
