The proposal to establish a second major port in Andhra Pradesh in the public sector, the first being Visakhapatnam, is still under the consideration of the Centre and a technical committee of experts is going into the issue, according to Union Shipping Secretary Gopalakrishna.
He was speaking here on Friday in the port sports complex after inaugurating the 500 kW rooftop on-grid solar power plant. He said the the proposal to set up the port at Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district had been given up after the expert committee had found it to be not feasible. However, alternative sites are being considered.
Ramayyapatnam port
In response to a question whether an alternative site had been suggested by the State government at Ramayyapatnam in Prakasam district, he said no such proposal had been received.
Visakhapatnam Port Chairman MT Krishnababu added that the State government was taking up the port project at Ramayyapatnam in Prakasam district on its own.
The Shipping Secretary clarified that the proposal for a second major port had not been given up. It may be noted that a controversy is raging in the State on the issue, as the proposal to set up the port at Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district had been included in 2014 in the AP Reorganisation Act.
The TDP government in the State is accusing the NDA government at the Centre of reneging on the promise.
The Shipping Secretary lauded the efforts of the Visakhapatnam port in taking up green energy initiatives.
In response to a question on projects taken up under public-private partnership (PPP) mode in different major port of the country including Visakhapatnam, he admitted that there were some issues, but the government was taking steps to address them and assist the private developers.
“Basically, the model is sound and most of the PPP projects are doing well. Only a few are facing problems but we are addressing the issue,” he said.
Krishnababu said that the port had already set up a 10 MW solar power project at its own cost. “This 500 kW rooftop solar power plant is being taken up by ReNew Solar Energy Pvt Ltd. We incur no cost and we have given the rooftop on lease for 25 years. We will buy the power from the company at ₹3.93 per unit. At present, we are buying power from the APEPDCL at ₹12 per unit. We will save the remaining amount,” he said.