By IANS,
Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S.R. Reddy Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the Rs.15.9 billion all-weather deep water port at Machilipatnam in Krishna district.
Maytas Infra Ltd, a Hyderabad-based construction and infrastructure development company, will build the port in association with Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd, SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd and Sarat Chatterjee & Co (VSP) Private Ltd.
The new port will come up four km north of an existing fishing harbour at Gilakaladinne, which was built during the British rule.
The port, to be developed in three years, will have a cargo handling capacity of 15 millions tonnes per annum (MTPA) in the first phase. The capacity will go up to 35 MTPA in the final phase.
The state government has allotted 6,262 acres of land to the port, which will have 12 berths. The consortium led by Maytas has signed concession agreement with the government that would be in force for 30 years.
“Maytas Infra is proud to be associated with Machilipatnam deep water port that will provide a strong impetus to the development activity in this region. The project would be developed in three years, and we look forward to contributing to the progress of Andhra Pradesh,” said Teja Raju, vice chairman of Maytas Infra.
The port, well connected by road and rail and in close vicinity of Gannavaram airport, has a good potential for handling coal requirements of Vijayawada thermal power plant and other cement plants spread in the Krishna belt.
On completion, the Machilipatnam deep water port will be equipped to handle exports of agricultural produce, minerals and other commodities from the surrounding districts.
Andhra Pradesh has about 1,000 km long coastline and the state government has plans to develop a port in each of the nine coastal districts.