‘Proposal to designate Sri City as a dry port under examination’: Union Minister
Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal has said in the Lok Sabha on July 23 that a proposal to designate Sri City
Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal has said in the Lok Sabha on July 23 that a proposal to designate Sri City in Tirupati district as a dry port was being examined by the Inter-Ministerial Committee under Customs. Replying to a question on the creation of export-import logistics infrastructure (Inland Container Depots and Container Freight Stations) in Andhra Pradesh (AP) asked by Vijayawada MP Kesineni Sivanath on July 23, Mr. Sonowal said the Inter-Ministerial panel approved proposals for eight new dry ports, including Fatehpur in Telangana, and another nine new proposals were under active consideration of the Centre.
These include Sri City in AP and Chityala in Telangana. He informed the House that the dry ports were to be sanctioned on the basis of logistics density of States, wherein AP has been placed in the blue zone in which priority is given to setting up new dry ports in specific areas where industrial demand is high but infrastructure is limited.
To protect the economic viability of dry ports, new greenfield projects would not be allowed within 100 kilometers of each other and rail-linked ICDs were prioritized only if the transit distance from the seaport was more than 200
kilometers. The Minister has clarified that the Central government was committed to reducing freight transport costs and connecting the Telugu States to an international — standard logistics network, while noting that Sri City was crucial for AP's economic growth.
The BriefWire