Activists of the Congress party staged protests in various parts of Nellore district on Friday demanding early grounding of the Dugarajapatnam port.
The activists staged demonstrations in Gudur, Naydupeta, Venkatagiri and Sullurpeta, upset with the undue delay in starting the construction of the port with an investment of ₹8,000 crore promised by the Centre at the time of bifurcation.
Though the port figured in the State Reorganisation Act, the project remained in a limbo all these years as the NDA Government did not take any concrete step to anchor the port cleared by the Manmohan Singh Government, pointed out party Gudur in-charge P. Venkateswarlu.
An important promise made to Andhra Pradesh at the time of bifurcation remained unfilled for so long for political reasons, said party Sarvepalli in-charge P. Chandrasekar.
The YSRCP government in the State should impress upon the Centre to take up the project forthwith, said party Sulurpeta in-charge Eswaraiah
Dugarajapatnam was a flourishing port in the 16th century and had attracted more Exim trade than Chennai, recalled party Venkatagiri in-charge P. Srinivas Reddy.