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Andhra Pradesh has the 2nd longest coastline of 974 km in the eastern peninsular India, which accounts for 12% of the country’s total coastline with one major (Operational) and 14 non–major (5 Operational) ports, with six ports under development in the PPP mode.
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Cargo handling
The state's ports handled 73 million tons of cargo in financial year 2015-16. The state of Andhra Pradesh is the second maritime state (after Gujarat) in terms of cargo handled by Non-Major Ports and the third maritime state (after Gujarat and Maharashtra) in terms of overall cargo handled including Visakhapatnam port trust .
Exports and imports
Exported products are Rice, Wheat, Maize, Soya bean meal and retraction, Rice bran extraction, Bentonite, Fibre, Fish Meal, Tobacco, Sand, Cement Iron ore, Cement clinker, Minerals etc. Some of the imports include Murate of Potash, Rock phosphate, Urea, Crude Palm Oil, Edible oils, Chemicals, Gases, Wood pulp, Machineries etc. Lightering of Crude oil also takes place.
Locational Advantage
AP is called as Nature’s Port Hub because of its natural advantages of long coastline and three deep draft ports- Visakhapatnam, Gangavaram and Krishnapatnam, with Gangavaram having natural deepest draft in the country which enables it to handle cape size vessels.Visakhapatnam Port is the only major port in the country that can handle cape size vessels. This gives strategic advantages to Andhra Pradesh Ports when compared to other Ports in the container circuit.
Andhra Pradesh is well linked internally with vast Railway network of 5,107 km, 620 stations and Road network of 194,523 Km including 4,104 Km of National Highways as well as it is well linked to outside world with direct shipping call from South East Asian economies to AP Ports vis a vis Ports in West Coast which can save transit time of around 2-3 Days.
Investment Hub
Andhra Pradesh has been ranked as no. 1 State in ease of doing business by World Bank and the Indian Government’s department of industrial policy and promotion in 2016. Andhra Pradesh Ports offer tremendous potential for development and growth of a wide spectrum of maritime activities such as international shipping, coastal shipping, ship repairs, fishing, ship breaking, captive ports for specific industries, all weather ports, tourism and sports. Andhra Pradesh also offers abundant opportunities for exploration and development of hydrocarbons, petroleum refineries, petrochemicals, tank farm and LNG Terminals especially in the ‘KG’ (Krishna-Godavari) Basin.
Promoting Port Sector
The Government of Andhra Pradesh is very proactively taking the following initiatives to promote the development of Port sector in Andhra Pradesh:-