Gadkari to launch development projects at Vizag port tomorrow

Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari will launch various development projects under the Sagarmala and Bharatmala projects worth Rs 3,685.35 crore here tomorrow.

The minister, who is here on a two-day visit for the annual review of the country's port sector as well as the Sagarmala and Bharatmala projects, will inaugurate two new post Panamax Rail-Mounted Quay Cranes and allied equipment at the Visakhapatnam Container Terminal Private Limited.

They have been installed at a cost of Rs 150 crore, according to Visakhapatnam Port Trust chairman M T Krishna Babu.

Gadkari would also inaugurate the upgraded and modernised iron ore handling complex at VPT, built at a cost of Rs 580 crore under the public-private partnership model, the chairman said.

He would inaugurate a new fire station complex at VPT and a high-rise wall (to prevent pollution) and launch a 2,000 sapling plantation programme.

This Rs 10.35-crore project is a part of the VPT's measures to curb air pollution.

The minister would later drive to Beach Road in Visakhapatnam city to lay the foundation stone for a Rs 549-crore four-lane road connectivity project to the Visakhapatnam Port under the Bharatmala programme.

He would also lay the foundation stone for six-laning of Anandapuram-Anakapalle section of NH-16 that would cost Rs 2,013 crore.

Krishna Babu said Gadkari would inaugurate WQ 7 and 8 berths constructed at a cost of Rs 243 crore and inaugurate the expanded (two to four lane) stretch of port connectivity road (Rs 80 crore).

He would also lay the foundation for a grade separator on the road that would cost Rs 60 crore.

These three projects were being taken up by the VPT in a joint venture with the National Highways Authority of India, Krishna Babu added.

Gadkari would leave for Nagpur tomorrow night.