VISAKHAPATNAM: The state government is planning to introduce spot approval system, exemption of seeking approvals for investments in certain category of industries and also assignment of inspection to technical experts in private sector, said chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, here Friday.
He launched the much-awaited Infrastructure Mission, one of the seven missions to be launched by the Andhra Pradesh government for the integrated development of state.
Naidu said that Andhra Pradesh would soon turn into the gateway of India on the East Coast due to its vast coastline and natural location. Visakhapatnam stands out in the state and would soon become the logistics hub. “The government’s thrust areas include an automobile hub, food processing parks, mineral processing, defence and aerospace hubs, industrial townships, petrochemical complexes, integrated textiles and apparels parks and establishment of electronic clusters. The state also has sector-specific policies for customised impetus to the thrust sectors,” he explained.
In all, 139 projects would be taken up in the state during the next 15 years, at an estimated cost of more than $ 200 billion under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode. While there were four functioning ports in Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Kakinada and Krishnapatnam, the state government was planning to exploit the potential of the 980 km coastline by developing more ports, he said.
The chief minister promised to encourage new entrepreneurs by setting up a centre in association with the industrial bodies like CII to guide them. The government proposed to develop two major industrial corridors - Chennai to Visakhapatnam and Chennai to Bengaluru via Krishnapatnam Port, which would pass through the state. Similarly, a beach road between Itchapuram and Chennai would be developed parallel to the national highway along with the development of a waterway. An international green field airport would be developed at Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district and the airports in Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, and Tirupati would be upgraded. There would be an airport for each district except Srikakulam, he added.
Earlier in the day, during a panel discussion, secretary for energy and infrastructure department Ajay Jain said that Andhra Pradesh was investing heavily in infrastructure projects in the next 10-15 years to attract investments and the Infrastructure Mission was a step in this direction. He announced that a state maritime board would be set up for the development of ports.
Visakhapatnam Port Trust chairman MT Krishna Babu predicted tremendous opportunities for port-led development in Andhra Pradesh due to availability of vast coastline and a hinterland of over 500-km linking seven states.
The Visakhapatnam Port was expanding its cargo handling capacity from 80 million tonnes to 125 million tonnes in the next three years. At present, the ports at Kakinada, Gangavaram and Krishnapatnam were also on expansion mode. Meanwhile, pwer and water would be the biggest challenges for industries in future besides connectivity. Ports were not utilising their capacity fully as the railways was unable to supply adequate number of rakes. The government was planning to develop multi-modal logistic hub near Visakhapatnam on the lines of Bhiwandi near Mumbai, he added.