By SNV Sudhir
The present airport is controlled by Indian Navy. After struggle for many years airport
was recently opened for 24/7. They are apprehensive about the present airport expansion
into international standards if it continues to be under the control of Indian Navy. They
now want either a new green field international airport or the navy to leave it
exclusively for civilian operations and develop, expand it into an international airport
for better air connectivity
Vizag’s Waltair division comes under East Coast Railway (ECoR), having headquarters at Bhubanesar in Odisha. Dedicated rail network, plays a very important role in exports.
Major exports from both Vizag and Ganganvaram ports that use rail network is iron ore,
coal, maize and fertilisers.
Currently both the ports are handling 85 million tonnes of cargo per annum. They have
started augmenting their facilities to handle cargo of 200 million tonnes by 2020 for
which separate railway zone with Vizag as headquarters is highly essential. Otherwise
they fear if enough rakes are not provided by ECoR controlled by Odisha, the cargos may shift to Paradip and Gopalapur ports making a hole in the local pockets.
Besides, airport, dedicated rail network along the Seemandhra coast, a separate railway
zone with Vizag headquarters, local entrepreneurs also observed that the city needs to be
refurbished and social infrastructure like better schools, colleges, higher education
institutions, hospitals be provided.
“Apart from all this, mind set of the locals, political leaders and trade unions should
change. Any entrepreneur would show interest in investing in a peaceful and cordial
environment. We all should strive to create such environment and atmosphere. More
investments mean more organizations, revenue to the state’s exchequer and employment to locals. We should welcome entrepreneurs with open arms, and then only region will witness overall development,” said CII, Vizag chapter chairman and
No comments:
Post a Comment