Draft report on MMLP soon

Hyderabad: The proposed multi modal logistic park (MMLP) by Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) is all set to come up with ‘draft project report’ (DPR) soon, according to its Chairman MT Krishna Babu.

Speaking to media on the sideline of an event hear, Krishna Babu said that the state government has already earmarked about 400 acres near Anakapalli and the VPT will invest about Rs 500 crore on the project to develop infrastructure like water, sewage, linking roads etc.

He was in Hyderabad to attend a road-show organised together by CII and GoI here ahead of Maritime India Summit 2016, which is scheduled to be held in Mumbai in April.

The project is expected to take about 3 to 5 years time to complete once the partners are identified, he added. Considering the location advantage of being middle of the east coast, the park will cater to a vast hinterland of 500 km covering 7 states, including Telangana.

Earlier speaking at the event, Krishna Babu said that the port is expected to run its entire operations on solar power from next month. It has already commissioned 2 MW solar power generating unit, while from March it will add another 8 MW.

"We will be the first major port in the country to run entire port operations on solar energy," Krishna Babu said, adding VPT has spent Rs 60 crore to set up the plants.

Director of Shipping ministry, Devendra K Rai said, the union government is targeting 135 MW of solar power project to be set up by 2020 in eight major ports -- JNPT, Paradip, Kamarajar, Kandla, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata and New Mangalore.

SN Venkatraman, Convenor, CII Telangana EXIM Panel and Vice-President, ITC Ltd, suggested to the government of Telangana, a land-locked state, to establish 'dry ports' and develop strong infrastructure to link it with the sea ports in Andhra Pradesh.