Ports fortify imports and exports. For India, with a vast coastline of over 6000 km, ports are gateways to international trade and commerce. Ports offer tremendous potential for development and growth of a wide spectrum of maritime activities such as international shipping, coastal shipping, ship repairs, fishing, captive ports for specific industries, all weather ports, tourism and sports. There are 13 major ports and 185 non-major ports all along the coastline of the country.

Huge investments in the ports sector have become imperative so that infrastructure in the ports sector gets modernized, upgraded and is expanded to allow handling of higher volumes of cargo in the existing ports as well as in the new ports to be developed.

ANDHRA PRADESH : THE PIONEER

Andhra Pradesh was amongst the first maritime states to recognize the imperative need for increased port infrastructure and the role that the private sector would be required to play in developing the same. Andhra Pradesh has prepared a perspective development of ports according to which a cargo of 75 MTs and 200 MTs would be handled by 2011-2012 and 2019-2020 respectively.

Andhra Pradesh has on date 14 notified non-major ports and one major port (Visakkhapatnam) along its 996km coastline. Andhra Pradesh is well linked internally as well as to the rest of the World. The State is active in encouraging the private sector to improve the port infrastructure. Six ports are under various stages of development in the PPP mode.

The 14 notified non-major ports are Bhavanapadu, Meghavaram, Kalingapatnam, Bheemunipatnam, Gangavaram, Nakkapalli, Kakinada SEZ, Kakinada, S.Yanam, Narsapur, Machilipatnam, Nizampatnam, Vadarevu and Krishnapatnam.

ADVANTAGE ANDHRA PRADESH

Andhra Pradesh enjoys many advantages over other states in location and infrastructure.

• Port infrastructure including 1 major and 14 non-major ports.
• Cargo handling capacity of about 85 MTs per annum.
• Visakhapatnam port-largest cargo handling port in the country.
• Railway network of 5,107 mts, 620 stations and handling capacity of more than 100 MTs annually Road network of 194,523 km including 4,104 km of National Highways.

Visakhapatnam is the country’s largest major port. At the state level, Andhra Pradesh is ranked second behind Gujarat and handles 10% of the total non-major port traffic. The non-major ports of Andhra Pradesh handled about 43 MTs of cargo during 2010-2011. Gangavaram port with ultimate capacity of 200 MTs would be fully mechanised with latest equipment & deepest in the country draught…..

ANDHRA PRADESH : FUTURE BECKONS

The 996 km long coastline and abundance of ports open opportunities for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons, petroleum refineries, petrochemicals, tank farms and LNG Terminals. There is a plan to handle projected cargo of 200 million tones by the year 2020, larger tonnage ships, providing ship repair facilities, industrial requirements, offshore, dedicated feedstock, fishing requirements and water sports.

As the search for offshore oil along the eastern coastline, particularly, Krishna-Godavari Basin is taking place on a large scale and already production platforms are established, SBMs are being utilized to transport crude to refineries. This activity is being supported through additional shore-support facilities.

The strategy to be adopted is to meet the requirements of the future needs of projected cargo handling and ship-building. Repair facilities would have to be based on the concept of central and sub-hubs and establishment of a port agglomeration complex on the East Coast.

A large requirement of capacity creation in ports needs huge investments for which the Government of Andhra Pradesh have formulated an open policy to encourage the private sector in port development. The private sector is invited to design, build, finance, operate and manage the ports based on their technical feasibility, projections for traffic and planned investments.

Andhra Pradesh has one of the best-laid inland water transport network with the Buckingham canal and Krishna-Godavari Delta canal system. But their neglect and disuse have impaired the functionality of both the systems.

INCENTIVES AND ASSISTANCE ON OFFER

• The investor would be free to fix own tariff for various port services without detriment to the development of the port in shorter/longer periods.
• The investors would also be given complete freedom to follow their own personnel and employment policy without being governed by the rules and policies as in other Indian Ports.
• Government will give all possible help in acquisition of land water front on payment by the investor. Wherever port land is available, it will be provided to the parties at the rates prescribed by the Government.
• Land required for those industries, which need to be located close to a port to take advantage of bulk handling of their materials/products, can be acquired through APIIC on the basis of feasibility report made by the investor. If the investor wants to own the land and lease out to industries, such land can be acquired on market price under Land Acquisition Act.
• Government will support incentives for port based industries that are going to be setup, whatever incentives that are available as on date as per the Government policy can be extended.

THE FUTURE : NON-MAJOR PORTS DEVELOPMENT

The role of non-major ports run by State governments is going to be crucial for the country in the next five years. Recognising this, the maritime States have drawn up plans for taking up a number of projects to expand their port capacities considerably.

Besides the country’s 13 major ports, there are 185 non-major ports dotting India’s 6,000 km coastline. However, only a few of them provide round-the-year berthing facilities. The major ports handle around 70 per cent of India’s sea-borne traffic and the non-major ports account for the remaining 30 percent.

Port traffic in India is estimated to reach 1000 mts by 2013-14. Cargo handling at all major ports is projected to grow at 12 per cent per annum till 2013-14, with non-major ports growing at a faster rate.

Of the country’s 185 non-major ports, only 61 are functional, according to a report. The number of non-functional non-major ports is the maximum in Maharashtra, at 46, while the corresponding numbers for the other States are Gujarat (23), Andamans (17), Kerala (10), Tamil Nadu (9), Andhra Pradesh (4), Goa (4) and Karnataka (4).

Non-major ports fall in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and the primary responsibility for their development and management rests with the State concerned.