Andhra Pradesh: First Ship To Arrive At Ramayapatnam Port By Early 2024

Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board expects to complete the Ramayapatnam port in 36 months and welcome the first ship in early 2024.

The AP government is building Ramayapatnam port on Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) model. The estimated Rs 3,560 crore project cost includes a debt-to-equity ratio of 58:42 and an impressive internal rate of return of 18.99 per cent.

The building of four docks, including one for coal handling and a multipurpose berth, will be carried out in stages once the breakwaters are finished in two to three months.

The breakwaters and other civil works are currently being built by the Ramayapatnam Port Development Corporation Limited (RPDCL), a joint venture of Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL) and Aurobindo Realty & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd (AR & IPL).

A lighthouse and other navigational aids, such as leading lights, will be installed in due course.

The necessary environmental clearance and consent for the establishment have been received, according to APMB CEO S. Shan Mohan, reports The Hindu.

Design work is carried out by IIT-Madras and Royal Haskoning DHV engineering consulting firm from the Netherlands.

The project management expert AECOM India reviewed the DPR after RITES Limited had created it.

While the designs were for 15 berths in the long run, where larger carriers like cape-size and Panamax boats can enter, the port can accept ships weighing up to 80,000 DWT in Phase-I.

Ramayapatnam is a coastal village in Gudluru Mandal of Nellore District. The port is 4.5 km from the National Highway and 93 km North of Krishnapatnam Port.

The port will serve its main hinterland, which includes the former Andhra Pradesh districts of Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur, and Kurnool as well as Telangana's Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy, and Hyderabad.

The YSR Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur, and other parts of Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka are part of the secondary hinterland.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy performed the Bhoomi Pooja of the Greenfield Ramayapatnam Port construction project on 20 July.

The Ramayapatnam port is planned to be built in two phases. The first phase is estimated to cost 3,736 crores. It is proposed to have four berths, including one coal berth, two container berths and one multipurpose berth with a cargo handling capacity of 25 million tonnes.

The cargo handling capacity will be increased by 113.63 million tonnes in phase 2 with an investment of Rs 6,904 crore, bringing the total capacity to 138.54 million tonnes a year from 19 berths.

In its last year of development, the port is expected to handle 138 million tonnes of cargo, up from its initial capacity of around 25 million tonnes per year.