Gangavaram Port, located in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

, is India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

's deepest port. Inaugurated in July 2009, it has a depth of 21m. It is managed by Gangavaram Port Ltd., a special-purpose company floated by Mr. DVS Raju, who serves as its Chairman and Managing Director. The company is owned by the DVS Raju Group (59%), global Private Equity firm Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus, LLC is an American private equity firm with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia. It has been a private equity investor since 1966...

 (30%) and the Andhra Pradesh Government (11%).

History

Construction of the port began in December 2005, and commercial operations commenced in August 2008. The port was formally inaugurated in July 2009, by the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

Fishermen in the Gangavaram and Dibbapalem

Dibbapalem

Dibbapalem is a village in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.-Geography:Dibbapalem is located at . This village comes under the Greater Visakhapatnam Corporation in Andhra Pradesh, India.-Beach:The beach in Dibbapalem is called Gangavaram Beach...

 villages, who were directly affected by the construction of the port, demanded construction of an alternative jetty and a relief and rehabilitation package.

The DVS Raju group invested Rs. 1,850 crore

Crore

A crore is a unit in the Indian number system equal to ten million , or 100 lakhs. It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan....

 in the development of the port. Gangavaram Port Ltd. has taken a loan of Rs. 1,170 crore from a consortium of 13 banks, including the State Bank of India

State Bank of India

The State Bank of India is the largest Indian banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Mumbai, India. It is state-owned. The bank traces its ancestry to British India, through the Imperial Bank of India, to the founding in 1806 of the Bank of Calcutta, making it the oldest...

, to fund the Phase I development.

Comparisons with the Vizag port

The first client of the Gangavaram Port Ltd. is the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd., which runs the Vizag Steel

Vizag Steel

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant,opened by popularly known as Vizag Steel , is one of the major steel producers in India. Vizag Steel Plant has been conferred Navratna status on 17 November 2010. Founded in 1971, the company focuses on producing value-added steel, with 214,000 tonnes produced in August...

 Plant, and earlier used the Vizag port

Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam is a major sea port on the south east coast of India. With a population of approximately 1.7 million, it is the second largest city in the state of Andhra Pradesh and the third largest city on the east coast of India after Kolkata and Chennai. According to the history, the city was...

. The Gangavaram Port Ltd. plans to build conveyors for taking imported raw materials directly to the Vizag Steel plant, in order to reduce the railway transportation costs.

The Union Government of India, which owns the Vizag port, had proposed a joint venture between the Vizag port and the private operator of the Gangavaram port to make sure that the Vizag port's business remains unaffected. However, this proposal was rejected by the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu

N. Chandrababu Naidu

Nara Chandrababu Naidu born 20 April 1950, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh was the President of Telugu Desam Party , a regional party in the southern India state of Andhra Pradesh from 1996 to until he resigned. He served as the Chief Minister of the State for a record holding of nine years...

.

DVS Raju, while talking to reporters during the port's inauguration ceremony, insisted that it would be "complementary in nature" to the Vizag port, and not a competitor.

The Gangavaram port is capable of handling Super Cape size vessels of up to 200,000 DWT. The State Government plans to construct a Rs. 21-crore four-lane flyover

Overpass

An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...

to the Gangavaram port.