Andhra Pradesh is on the verge of losing a major port in government sector because of disagreement between the Andhra Pradesh and Central governments over its location in the past six months.
While AP promises to allot land at Ramayapatnam in Prakasam district, the Centre refuses it and instead asks for 3,000 acres at Vadarevu beach vicinity near Ongole in the same district. AP’s argument is that there are mangrove forests in Vadarevu coastal area and development of a port there would destroy these ecologically significant forests leading to major environmental concerns. Regardless of this, Union Shipping, Highways, Road Transport and Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari announced his Ministry’s readiness to develop the port at Vadarevu if the State comes forward to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
The Union Ministry’s argument is that there is already lot of land available at Vadarevu which was originally proposed for development as a big port at the time of YS Rajasekhara Reddy government. After change of governments, illegal assets cases were filed against Jaganmohan Reddy and it was widely known that Vadarevu port lands issue was one among those cases. About 13,000 acres of land was acquired for development of two sea ports and an industrial corridor from Vadarevu in Prakasam district to Nizampatnam in Guntur district at that time.
That project was named as Vadarevu and Nizampatnam Industrial Corridor (VANPIC). Under this, the CBI investigated the corruption charges and found that VANPIC’s Nimmagadda Prasad made Rs. 854 cr investments in Jagan’s related companies in return for allotment of lands to VANPIC. The project was eventually shelved and the land was lying vacant all these years.
The VANPIC lands came to the fore once again as the Centre is showing interest in developing port at Vadarevu. This is getting importance as a big port is needed in the next one year to meet the requirements of a multi-crore paper mill for which land has to be allotted in neighbourhood of the port itself.
Dugarajapatnam port site was another alternative but the Centre has already dismissed it as unviable commercially and due to presence of sensitive Pulicat lake in its surroundings. Actually, the then Congress government included this port as one of the major promises in AP Reorganisation Act 2014.
As regards the paper mill, there is land available in privately-built Krishnapatnam port area. However, the government and management proposed a separate port that would meet exclusively cater to its cargo and trade needs.
With Centre and State not coming to an agreement on location, there are concerns that the major port along with paper mill may shift to some other state.
