Visakhapatnam: AP's hope for industrialisation

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam once a tiny fishermen hamlet has metamorphosed into a mega metropolis over the years after the establishment of Visakhapatnam Port in 1933 and Hindustan Shipyard Limited in 1941.

The city has transformed into the second biggest industrial hub in undivided Andhra Pradesh after Hyderabad and ranked as one of the top 10 fastest growing cities in the country in the form of its contribution to the GDP. Incidentally, the port propelled the growth of Visakhapatnam by bringing investments in phases in various sectors. The port was established by the British India to facilitate transportation of manganese, muslin cloth, oilseeds, jaggery, jute, indigo, hides and skins. The commodities were transported to Visakhapatnam, then known as Vizagapatam, from various places. For instance, Uppada (East Godavari) used to send muslin cloth from Uppada. Manganese ore used to be exported to the United States and United Kingdom. Other items were going for shipment towards the Middle East and Myanmar.

Home to shipyard, major PSUs

Scindia Steam Navigation Company established a premier shipyard in the city after getting convinced with its strategic location which was later known as Hindustan Shipyard Limited (now a Ministry of Defence Enterprise). Visakhapatnam Port and HSL propelled growth in bringing investments into multiple sectors including heavy engineering, service sector, MSMEs, IT and pharma.

The city is home to the headquarters of two PSUs viz. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and Dredging Corporation of India Ltd (DCIL). VSP is the single largest industrial investment in Andhra Pradesh whereas after shelving strategic sale, DCIL's majority equity has been acquired by a consortium of four major ports led by Visakhapatnam Port.

The city also can boast of having two ports as Gangavaram Port has come up in the private sector in the backyard of the steel plant. Besides HSL, Visakhapatnam also has a Ship Building Centre, which makes nuclear powered submarines.

Two mega power plants

Visakhapatnam also has 2000 MW power plant by NTPC and another 1040 mw in private sector by Hinduja National Power Corporation Ltd. Eastern Naval Command has its headquarters in the city. A futuristic naval base is under construction near Atchutapuram and Rambilli. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is developing its first unit outside Trombay on the city suburbs. Visakhapatnam has also emerged as the largest IT, tourism and pharma hub. An exclusive cluster of units has been set up at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC) developed by Ramky. The city also has India's first LPG and crude storage underground caverns.

AP Special Economic Zone-Atchutpuram, Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone-Duvvada, IT SEZ at Rushikonda and Gambheeram, huge facilities by Divi;s Lab, Reddy's Lab, Mylan, PharmaGell, Laurus and other leading players have come up over the years.

Visakh Refinery, which was started in the private sector as Caltex Oil Refinery (India) with a production capacity of 0.67 million tonne is now undergoing expansion from 8.33 million tonne to 15 million tonne with an investment of Rs.20,928 crore. Visakhapatnam is also proud to have India's first exclusive medical devices manufacturing park under the 'Make in India' initiative.

The IT industry, which is mostly into the business process management sector, expects to make a leap forward once major ITparks like Raheja and anchor players are roped in to establish development centres.

143 large industries

Visakhapatnam has 143 large industries with an employee force of one lakh. MSMEs have engaged two lakh on direct employment. There are about 3,000 MSMEs mainly into fabrication and engineering spread over industrial estates at Gajuwaka, Pedagantyada, Agnampudi, Kurmannapalem and Gambheeram.