Budget 2014 : Krishnapatnam Receives Smart City Status
Krishnapatnam is a port town in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. Though it is one of the biggest ports in Eastern India, it wasn’t much heard of, till the 2014-15 union budget, where the port town received a huge fillip as a proposed smart city.
Overview
Krishnapatnam has one of the major ports and market centres in India, and is situated at a distance of approximately 25 km from Nellore district. The port initially handled approximately 30 million tonnes of cargo within the first year of operation. It is currently one of the few ports in the world that can handle giant ships with about 1,50,000 tonnes of load. It has also become one of the deepest ports in the country in recent times.
Connectivity and infrastructure
The Krishnapatnam port has a good connectivity to other cities. It is connected to National Highway-5 via a state highway. There is a dedicated 25km road that connects the NH-5 to the town. There is a railway line that connects the Chennai-Howrah broad gauge near Venkatachalam. Recently, there have been six helipads built in the proximity. The port has easy access to both Chennai and Tirupati airports.
At present, a single railway line via Venkatachalam as well as four-lane road serve the port. Provisions have been made to augment to a double rail line and 2 additional lanes of road. The previous governments had also sanctioned a new broad gauge line between the port and Bellary-Hospet iron ore mines. A pipeline corridor has been established to connect the port to the nearest 7 oil refineries with the purpose of liquid bulk transport. There is also a dedicated belt conveyor corridor with the purpose of transporting coal to the nearest 10 mega thermal power stations.
The port town has currently a 4,000MW ultra mega power plant (UMPP) being constructed by Reliance Power Ltd. This power plant is a part of the Power Finance Corporation’s plan to provide “power for all by 2012”.
Krishnapatnam gets a fillip
In line with the new government’s agenda to build 100 smart cities, Krishnapatnam was announced as one of the towns lying on the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) that would be developed as a smart city. This means that Krishnapatnam will now receive a big boost in terms physical and social infrastructure as well as employment opportunities. This will also result in the growth of both commercial and residential real estate in this town.
