AP: Public-pvt ties bring huge investments in port projects

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Government has said that the public-private partnerships in five ports in the State are bringing in investments of Rs 21,000 crore.

“We are able to attract these investments to build the ports of Gangavaram, Nizampatnam, Vodarevu, Machilipatnam and Krishnapatnam,” Dr Manmohan Singh, Secretary, Infrastructure and Investment Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, said.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference on “Enhancing foreign trade competitiveness through logistics efficiency”, he said the Machilipatnam port was due for financial closure in March 2009.

Asked whether the global meltdown would have an adverse impact on the port sector development in the State, he said that though there could be a slowdown in overall investments, it was too early to quantify the impact on a specific sector or project.

Addressing the seminar earlier, he said the Government was able to get revenue shares by going for PPP model on lands that were lying idle.

Stating that there was a need to improve logistics (co-ordination among relevant departments) in the Government, he cited the example of the connectivity to the new GMR international airport.

“We sat down to chalk out plans as early as 1997. Had we thought of connectivity issues then, we would have made Outer Ring Road and other roads within the city ready by now,” he said.

This, however, helped the planners change their views. “The Union Government has decided to factor in connectivity issues when they would give the go-ahead for international airports in the future,” Dr Singh said.