Port proposed in Prakasam

Prakasam district will dev-elop in the New Year if the Union government sanctions a port at the seacoast village of Ramayapatnam.

Prakasam district will dev-elop in the New Year if the Union government sanctions a port at the seacoast village of Ramayapatnam.

A high-level committee formed by the Union government will visit Ramayapatnam and adjacent areas to inspect the possibilities of port construction on January 7.

State government had re-commended another port to Union government two years ago and proposed Nakkapalli of Visakhapat-nam district, Ramayapat-nam of Prakasam district and Durgarajapatnam of Nellore district for the port project. The major port in the state is at Visakhap-atnam which is one of the busiest ports in the country with a capacity of 63.2 million tonnes per annum which will increase to 86 million tonnes by 2012-13.

Chimakurti of the district is famous for black galaxy granite which is exported to China, Ameri-can and European countries.

There are 186 galaxy granite quarries, 134 granite quarries, 74 quartz quarries, 15 silicon sand quarries and 105 slate mines in the district. These traders transport granite from Krishnapa-tnam or Chennai ports but with a new port here, transport expenses and time will be saved.

As much as 5,000 acres of land is required for the port and can be arranged at Ramayapatnam. The Union government will spend Rs.5,700 crore for the construction of the port.

The high-level committee led by chairmen of the Cochin, Paradip and Vish-akapatnam ports, Mr K. Subramanyam, Mr G.J. Rao and Mr D.S.R. Satyaprakash and others inspected Nakkapalli on December 6 and will inspect Durgarajapatnam of Nellore on January 6 and Ramayapatnam on January 7.

Some officials of the Ports department met the district joint collector, Mr P. Lakshminarsimham, in the last week of December and asked him to submit geographical and other details by January 2.

Source: Deccan Chronicle