AP to go ahead with Ramayapatnam port regardless of Central help: Chandrababu.

The foundation stone for the Ramayapatnam port in Prakasam district will be laid on January 9, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said.

He was speaking after releasing a White Paper at Amaravati recently on the industrial development in the State during the past four years after the TDP government assumed office.

Stating that the farming sector still accounted for 55 per cent of employment in the State, he said the industry and service sectors should also grow for the per capita income to rise. The Chief Minister alleged that the Centre had failed to accord special category status to AP, curtailing the scope for industrial development.

The Centre had also not disbursed grants for the Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor. The State bifurcation promise of a greenfield petro-chemical complex at Kakinada and a steel plant in Kadapa remained unfulfilled.

There was a provision in the AP Re-organisation Act, 2014, to set up a port at Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district, but the site was found unsuitable and the State had suggested an alternative site at Ramayapatnam in Prakasam district. But even then there was no positive response from the Centre.

The State will go ahead with the project and the foundation stone for the port and a paper mill at Ramayapatnam would be laid on January 9. For the Kadapa steel plant, the foundation stone was laid earlier this month.

HBL