Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 39 National Highways Projects in Andhra Pradesh today. These include construction of eleven ROBs under Setu Bhartam programme. These projects have a length of 1384 kms, and involve investment of Rs 16,878 crore.Speaking on the occasion, Shri Gadkari said, the length of National Highways in Andhra Pradesh before May 2014 was 4193 Km which has now increased to 7246 Km (including In-principle NHs). Thus, there has been increase of 3053 Km length in NHs. Total likely investment in Andhra Pradesh is Rs 1,00,000 cr for development of National Highways. Under Bharatmala about 2,520 Km of roads amounting to Rs 44,000 crore have been envisaged. Under SethuBhartam, 31 ROBs have been approved with cost of about Rs 2,500 crore. Out of these, 18 ROBs amounting to Rs 1,310 crore have been sanctioned which are at construction/award stage. In addition, 136 CRF works for total length of 1,805 km amounting to Rs 1,769 crore have been sanctioned since May 2014 in Andhra Pradesh. Out of these, 56 works for total length of 835 km amounting to Rs 570 crore have been completed.He said, a total of 108 projects costing Rs. 1,64,719 crore were identified for the State. Of these, 19 projects worth 2242 crore have been completed till October 2018. He said, 53 focus projects of Rs 33,042 crore are planned for completion during 2018-20. 27 projects are under implementation with investment of Rs 83,713 crore and 38 projects with investment of Rs 74,000 crore are under various stages of development. Further, DPR is under preparation for 23 projects worth Rs 4,151 crore.The Minister said, a roadmap has been developed for increasing Vizag Port capacity to 211 MMTPA from existing 152 MMTPA by 2025. Eleven port capacity expansion projects costing Rs 2,536 crore have also been identified to add 71 MMTPA capacity.
The Minister further informed that 36 Road Projects are planned for the State under Sagarmala Programme. Of these, 35 are by NHAI/ MoRTH, and one by the Port Trust. He said, three projects have been completed and eight projects are under implementation. 19 Railway Projects worth Rs 10,000 crore are also planned, of which nine are by Indian Railways, six by IPRCL and four by Andhra Pradesh Ports department. He said, six projects have been completed, and another six are under implementation.Shri Gadkari said, nine industrial clusters are being developed under Sagarmala programme in the State. These include, port-based mega food processing park in Kakinada-Godavari Mega Aqua Food park costing Rs 373 crore which has already been completed. APIIC Mega Food Park worth Rs 375.3 crore, Greenfield Electronics manufacturing Cluster in Renigunta and Yerpdeu Mandal- Chittor District- Tirupati costing Rs 9706.75 crore, Greenfield Electronics manufacturing Cluster in Vikruthamala Village - Yerpadu Mandal - Chittor District – Tirupati costing Rs 5719.8 crore, Greenfield Electronics manufacturing Cluster in Cherivi Village - Satyavedu Mandal - Chittor District – Tirupati costing Rs 1604.41 crore, and 6340 MW Power Cluster - Krishnapatnam worth Rs 37428 crore are under implementation. DPR is to be prepared for Petrochemical cluster worth Rs 4520 crore in Kakinada, Export based apparel cluster in central AP for Rs 3321 crore, and Cement cluster in AP worth Rs 24500 crore.The Minister said, under the coastal community development programme, Center of Excellence for Maritime & Shipbuilding is being set up in Vizag with total cost of Rs 574 crore. Skill gap study in two coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam and East Godavari) prepared for implementation, especially in Port & Maritime sector. Training of 1000 persons/eachyear for next 3 years in port and maritime sector planned. Multi skill development centre to be set up at the vizag port for bridging skill gap in port and maritime sector. A sum of Rs. 14 lakh has been released for DDU-GYK scheme against sanctioned budget of Rs.28 lakh in Andhra Pradesh.
Nitin Gadkari said, DPR has been prepared for five fishing harbor projects worth 1500 crore under Sagarmala. These include, Fishing Harbour in Juvvaladinne in SPSR Nellore District for 242 crore, Phase 2 development of existing fishing harbour at Machilipatnam in Krishna district – Rs 252 crore, Phase 2 development of existing fishing harbour at Nizampatnam in Guntur district - Rs 341 crore, Development of fishing harbour at Vodarevu in Prakasam district for Rs 409 crore, and Development of fishing harbour at Uppada -V U. Kotapalli -M in East Godavari district - Rs 289 crore.Under the Coastal Berth Scheme, nine Ro-Ro and tourism jetty projects worth Rs 560 crore have been taken up, in addition to another three projects worth 200 crore.The Minister said, National Waterway-4 with total length of 1078 km was declared in November 2008. These include, River Godavari (Bhadrachalam to Rajahmundry) - 171 kms, River Krishna (Wazirabad to Vijayawada) - 157 kms, Kakinada Canal (Kakinada to Rajahmundry) - 50 kms, Eluru Canal (Rajahmundry to Vijayawada) - 139 Kms, Commamur Canal (Vijayawada to Pedaganjam) - 113 kms, North Buckingham Canal (Pedaganjam to Chennai) - 316 kms, South Buckingham Canal (Chennai to Merkanam) - 110 kms, and Kaluvelly Tank (Markanam to Puducherry) - 22 kms. He said, NW-4 was extended to a revised length of 2890 kms by NW Act-2016 by including River Krishna from Wazirabad to Galagali (628 Km) and River Godavari from Bhadrachalam to Nasik (1184Km).He said, development work on some of these stretches has commenced in 2017-18. Ro-Ro services from Ibrahimpatnam to Lingayapalem are ready for commencement. He said, development of this stretch will provide an efficient logistics solution to boost the economic growth of the region and facilitate the development of the capital city Amravati during its early development stage as substantial construction material is expected to be transported on this stretch of NW-4.