Andhra Pradesh Approves Greenfield Port & Mega Shipbuilding Cluster At Dugarajapatnam

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday permitted the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board to establish a greenfield port, and a National Mega Shipbuilding Cluster at Dugarajapatnam in Tirupati district, involving the acquisition of 2,000 acres of land. Special Chief Secretary of Infrastructure & Investment (Ports) Department, MT Krishna Babu said the greenfield port and the shipbuilding cluster are proposed under the Shipbuilding Development Scheme (SbDS) of the Ministry of Ports Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW).

"Government.hereby accord permission to the AP (Andhra Pradesh) Maritime Board for taking necessary action for (the) establishment of Greenfield Port and Ship Building Cluster at Dugarajapatnam, Tirupati District," said Babu in a government order (GO). To track and accelerate the development of the National Mega Shipbuilding Cluster, Andhra Pradesh, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be created between the MoPSW and the Andhra Pradesh government.

The Shipping Ministry will extend support to the SPV through its entities in the southern state such as the Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA). As per the guidelines of the scheme, the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board (APMB) will form a 50:50 SPV with Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) with equal representation from the state government and VPT to the board of directors of the SPV.

Further, APMB has also been permitted to complete the land acquisition of 2,000 acres for setting up the National Mega Shipbuilding Cluster, mobilising resources for this purpose and transferring the lands into the SPV as state government's equity. The greenfield port and the national mega shipbuilding cluster will entail the construction of an anchor shipyard of 0.5 million gross tonnage (GT) capacity per annum, which is required to be achieved within 10 years from its commissioning, coordinated by VPT and APMB.

Likewise, the state government has authorised the maritime board to select a partner for developing the shipyard. According to the GO, the Government of India (GoI) has set a target to achieve a shipbuilding output of 4.5 million GT per year under the Maritime India Vision 2030 and Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 from the current 0.01 million GT per annum capacity. Under these two visions, the Indian government is aspiring to propel the South Asian giant into the top five shipbuilding nations club by 2047, the GO added.

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