Summary – Greenfield Port at Ramayapatnam in Andhra Pradesh
The Government of Andhra Pradesh is proposing to develop agreen field port at
Ramayapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to meet the ever increasing cargo demand in the State.
It is proposed to be developed a non- major state port at Ramayapatnam along Andhra
Coast. Ramayapatnam village, proposed site for port development is a coastal village,
located at South-East corner of Prakasam district in Ulavapadumandal, located 4.5 km
East of Tettu Railway Station on NH-5 and 93 km North of Krishnapatnam Port. It is
12.8 km away from its Mandal main town Ulavapadu and 78.7 km distance from its
district main city Ongole. Geographical coordinates of Ramayapatnam where port is
proposed are 15002’55”N latitude and 80002’50” E longitude. It is planned to develop the
port as all-weather port with world class terminal facilities well suited to meet the present
and future needs of the trades and also suitable to develop as a major port.
The Port will have an artificial deep sea harbour along an open straightsea coast and is
protected by providing northern caisson breakwater of length 2.0 km and southern rubble
mound breakwater of length 4.4 km with concrete capping for the Phase – 1 development.
Hence the master layout is developed in between a pair of breakwaters. Theentrance to
the proposed harbour is on the northeast side. The breakwaters are mainly to protect the
harbour from wave action, littoral currents and alongshore sandmovement. The south
breakwater is aligned to protect the harbour from strong, persistent and predominant
swell that reach the Ramayapatnam open sea coast during southwest monsoon season for
about 8 to 9 months (March to November) in a year and also toprevent predominant
northerly littoral drift during the SW monsoon season. Thenorth breakwater is aligned in
such a way to protect waves that reach the coast fromeast and northeast during northeast
monsoon season for the remaining period of 3to 4 months (December to February) in a
year. The master plan layout of the port has been fine-tuned through model studies.
Master plan has also taken into account the future provision for a dry dock / ship lift
facility, LNG berths and Fishing harbour.
The approach to the port is through a channel of 14km in length, dredged to -15.5 m deep
and equipped with night navigational facilities. The permissible fully laden draught is
12.6 m to handle Panamax size vessels of 80,000 DWT during Phase – 1 and the vessel
size subsequently will be increased to 125,000 DWT to commercially carry bulk cargo of
coal, ore, containers and other commodity raw materials,to and from the hinterland and
overseas and also through coastal shipping.The approach channel and the turning circle
would need to be dredged up to a depth required for berthing of Panamax vessels during
first phase and ultimately Cape size vessels during subsequent phases.The estimated
dredging quantity is about 27 m cu m for Phase – 1 development. The hydrodynamic and
siltation model studies carried out for the port have revealed that about 0.4 m cu m per
annum of sand would likely to be deposited in the harbour basin and port channels which
require maintenance dredging.
The width proposed for the approach channel is 250 m with side slopes of 1:7 for two
way traffic flow. A 600 m diameter turning circle that is 2.5 to 3.0 m times the length of
the largest vessel is proposed in the harbour basin. Navigational aids along the approach
1
channel consisting of leading lights, breakwater lights and a single station lighthouse
onshore would be provided.
The Ramayapatnam port will be developed in an area of 802 acres during first phase and
3437 acres for the ultimate projected traffic, for the creation of permanent marine
facilities for mechanized cargo handling, transportation and storage / retrieval to meet the
demands of trade and shipping activities. Green belt will be provided in 37 acres during
the first phase and greenery area will be increased to 100 acres during the ultimate phase.
No forest land to be acquired for the project.
The announcement by the state government to construct a port at the Ramayapatnam in
Prakasam district started attracting investments from various developers like M/s Ramco
cement, M/s Jindal Steel, M/s Asia Pulp and Paper and so on. The private investors have
committed a cargo handling of 32 million tons through the proposed port. The hinterland
traffic estimates have revealed that about 25 million tons are estimated to be handled in
the initial stages of port development and projected cargo for the ultimate year of port
development would be around 138 million tons. In the first phase, the harbour basin is
planned to provide 5 berths for the Government and 6 berths for the private investors with
anadditional provision of 3 berthstotalling 14 berths. However, the construction of
number of berths will be as per the actual need and demand basis. The berths are laid out
in such a way that the coal is segregated from the other clean cargo. The coal berths and
conveyor corridor is provided along the north breakwater.
The port with its proposed facilities will become a gateway port for its entire hinterland.
The primary hinterland of Ramayapatnam is covered by Prakasam District, Guntur
District and Kurnool, in Andhra Pradesh; Nalgonda, Mahaboobnagar, Rangareddy,
Hyderabad in Telangana. The secondary hinterland covers Nellore, Cuddapah, Chittoor,
Ananthapur in AndhraPradesh; Medak and other border districts of Telangana, the land
locked Chaattisgarh, the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka sharing boarder with Telangana
and located in close proximity with Ramayapatnam. The territory hinterland covers all
the neighboring states, as well as northern states.
The overall project is proposed to be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle
(SPV),Andhra Pradesh Maritime Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. The
Feasibility Study carried out in 2016 has estimated a project cost of Rs. 4240 Crores for
initial development and the final stage development cost would be around 10,000 cr for
handling the ultimate stage cargo projected. The present construction cost of the project
is likely to vary considering the changes in project components for which the DPR is
under preparation.
