Transform Andhra into world-class maritime hub, Naidu tells officials

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday urged the officials to transform Andhra Pradesh into a world-class maritime hub, taking advantage of its nearly 1,000 km-long coastline. The Chief Minister reviewed the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Policy, 2024 at the secretariat, which focuses on port development, proximal area growth, ship building clusters and allied activities in Amaravati.
Chandrababu Naidu directed the officials to mainly focus on developing high-capacity ports by adopting a hub and spoke model, connecting the port proximal areas with departments of Industries, tourism, Roads and Buildings (R&B), linking all the three industrial corridors in the state for future development, making the people as partners for providing basic amenities, encourage the P-4 model for the development of ports and harbors and also attract the world-level companies to set up ship-building and ship repair units in the state.
He also stressed the need to strengthen the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board to achieve these goals. The officers brought to the notice of the Chief Minister that the state holds second rank in the country in the category of non-major ports with a growth of 16 per cent in EXIM (Export and Import) cargo handling.The state acquired first place in the export of seafood products last year with a 32 per cent growth rate.The state currently has one major port in Visakhapatnam, five non-major ports, four green-field ports that are under construction and seven other ports which have been notified.