Decks cleared for Machilipatnam port project

Clearing the decks for the development of the Machilipatnam deep-water port in Krishna district after a two-year-long wait , the Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday issued orders for acquisition and transfer of 5,324 acre for the project.

The Navayuga Group, the operator of Krishnapatnam Port as well as one of the major infrastructure players in the state, was selected for the development of the port project in 2010. This came two years after the project was originally awarded to Ramalinga Raju-promoted Maytas Infra Limited-led consortium through a bidding process in 2008.

Hyderabad-based NCC Limited is also a part of the Machilipatnam port consortium.

The state Cabinet had, in April 2010, decided to award the Rs 1,500-crore project to Navayuga Engineering Company Limited as the lead promoter of the consortium, replacing Maytas, which went down following the multi-crore accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services Limited.

However, with the subsequent change of the chief minister, the issue of allotment of a large extent of land as was originally envisaged for the integrated development of the port project was put on a back burner.

The state government’s infrastructure and investment department in its orders said the final decision on this issue had been taken after going through the reports of the Director of Ports of the state government and the Indian Ports Association (IPA).

According to the orders, the authorities concerned will acquire 5,324 acre and transfer the same to the Director of Ports, who in turn will make available the land to the project developer on a lease basis. The project has been proposed to be developed on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.