Deals worth Rs 75k-cr signed at Maritime Summit

Visakhapatnam: AP Maritime Board, Visakhapatnam Port Trust, and Dredging Corporation of India Ltd signed agreements worth over Rs 75,000 crore during the three-day Maritime India Summit summit. Some of them include development of multi-modal logistic park by Container Corporation of India (CCI) and expansion of capacity by ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel.

The immense potential for investment in Andhra Pradesh was highlighted at the summit, which concluded on Thursday.

K Rama Mohana Rao, chairman, Visakhapatnam Port Trust, said that Andhra Pradesh was one of the fastest growing states in India and was endowed with the second longest coastline. He said AP was keen on utilising its coast to the potential, for accelerating economic growth and reiterated that AP ranked number one in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB). Addressing a special session on AP, Rao reiterated that the State was taking initiatives to unlock the capacity of coastline by exploring the possibilities of developing new ports and mentioned about how the Visakhapatnam Port was playing a big role in serving the nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who inaugurated the summit organised by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in virtual mode, had lauded the efforts to make India an economic power with thrust on self-reliance.

As part of Maritime India Summit-2021, a special session on investment opportunities in Andhra Pradesh and a plenary sessionon "port-led industrialisation building port cities and maritime clusters" was conducted on Day-2 of the summit. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy stressed on the initiatives being rolled out to investors for developing the 974-km coastline.