AP clears greenfield port, shipbuilding hub at Dugarajapatnam

The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday approved the setting up of a greenfield port and a mega shipbuilding cluster at Dugarajapatnam in Tirupati district. It issued a Government Order authorising the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board (APMB) to implement the project under the Shipbuilding Development Scheme of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.

The order said the APMB has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Visakhapatnam Port Authority to develop the facility. The project is part of the Maritime India Vision 2030.

The national vision seeks to make India one of the world’s top five shipbuilding nations by 2047. It targets an annual shipbuilding capacity of 4.50 million gross tonnage, compared to the current output of about 0.01 million GT.

The State government will form a Special Purpose Vehicle to execute the project. It plans to acquire around 2,000 acres of land and transfer it to the SPV as the State’s equity contribution under the scheme.

The project includes an anchor shipyard with a capacity of 0.50 million GT per year. Authorities aim to achieve this within 10 years of commissioning. The Government Order empowers the APMB to act through the SPV to carry out the project in line with the scheme guidelines.