Vijayawada, Mar 2 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the state government is developing three Green field sea ports at Ramayapatnam, Machilipatnam and Bhavanapadu on an innovative model that mitigates all risks associated with green field port development.
The Chief Minister said this while speaking at the ‘Maritime India Summit 2021’ from his camp office in Tadepalli near here.
The summit was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, virtually on Tuesday.
Mr Reddy said that the state government has undertaken the development of three Green field sea ports, thereby making the port operation a risk free proposition for the private sector.
He said that these all-weather, deep-drafted ports are all set to be operational by 2023, creating an additional capacity of at least 100 million tons of cargo per annum in the short term, with a potential to grow leaps and bounds in the long term .
The Chief Minister said that the state government with the support of the Central government while promoting skilling by establishing an aqua university, has also undertaken the development of 8 Fishing Harbours, establishment of testing labs and cold chain facilities to provide better ecosystem for aquaculture thereby increasing the share of aqua-related cargo from the ports.
“Several industrial nodes have come up in the state in recent times, with ports as the focal point for development and the Andhra Pradesh government has taken up a lot of transformative steps to leverage its coastal line of 974 KMs, which is the second longest in India and the longest on the eastern coast of the country”, he informed.
“I believe that the importance of “Blue Economy” in a nation’s growth story extends much beyond the maritime trade and the Export-Import statistics. The true value of “Blue Economy” is unlocked only when all the allied sectors which are directly and indirectly dependent on the ocean such as aquaculture, maritime & coastal tourism, chemical & bio-technological exploration, ship building and other port led industries also mature enough to provide sustainable employment and growth opportunities”, Mr Reddy stated.
UNI DP CS 1757