State govt set to sign MoU for Machilipatnam port

The state government is all set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the consortium of Navayuga Engineering Company Limited and Nagarjuna Construction Company Limited within 10-15 days, according to state minister for infrastructure, ports, airports and natural gas, Ganta Srinivas Rao. “The government is very keen on setting up a Maritime board with an autonomous status to develop the port sector in the state. The board will be in place very shortly,” he said at a meet-the-press programme here on Friday.

Rao said private players like Essar, Gangavaram Port and Nuziveedu Seeds were evincing interest in setting up ports at Kalingapatnam and Bhavanapadu.

Hence, the government is planning to call for global tenders for setting up modern ports in these places, he added.

Besides this, Rao said, the Union government had sanctioned another major port to Andhra Pradesh. The experts committee has already identified three places for the purpose and the major port is likely to come up in Visakhapatnam district, he said.

“The state government is giving equal priority to airports also,” he said, adding that international flights will operate from the Vizag airport from March 25, 2012.

“The government has constructed a terminal building at Rajahmundry airport with an investment of Rs 40 crore. It has also decided to modernise the Vijayawada and Tirupati airports,” Rao said.

Stating that the government is planning to develop ‘air strips’ to operate flights from Nellore and Telangana regions with less investments within two years, Rao said the government was initiating several steps to increase the natural gas allocation from the K-G basin to meet the requirements of the state.

“Towards this, the government is going to set up the AP Gas Authority very soon,” he said.