Amaravati: Centre vows support to 8 fishing harbours in State

Amaravati: The Central government assured that it would support the eight fishing harbours proposed to be built in the state, according to industries minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy.

Addressing a press conference at Mangalagiri on Thursday, Goutham Reddy said Union minister for industries Piyush Goyal had assured that the Centre would either invest directly or support indirectly for the development of these fishing harbours. He said that during his recent visit to New Delhi, he met Goyal and requested the Centre's support for the development of these harbours. Apart from constructing fishing harbours, the government also prepared plans for developing infrastructure for connectivity. The state government is expecting support from the Central government on connectivity too.

He said tenders would be called for construction of two ports on December 15, 2020 and the Detailed Project Reports were completed for them. Apart from that, another proposal for construction of a third port is in progress, he added.

Goutham Reddy said that the Union government was planning to establish two petro-chemical corridors and AP has the advantage to get them.

He said a bulk drug park proposed by the Union government is likely to come up at East Godavari district. The state government has experience in handling the pharma industries, and the manufacturing companies have also been evincing interest on AP, he added.

The minister said NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar would visit the state to see himself development of school infrastructure under the Naadu Nedu programme in October. "He expressed interest on the programme after knowing about it. He will visit at least one school in Visakhapatnam district," he said.

The minister, who also holds IT portfolio, said the government was planning to develop Vizag as the world's cloud computing centre.