After the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved setting up of the Rs8,000 crore Duagarajaptnam major port near Nellore on May 9, 2013, RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) has prepared the feasibility report. Nellore district administration is going ahead with land acquisition to set up the Dugarajapatnam port. But, the location of the port seems to have moved to Tupilipalem to overcome environmental objections.
Tupilipalem is 20 km away from Dugarajapatnam and more than 120 km away from sensitive locations like Pulicat Lake and the satellite launching centre at Sriharikota. The new port would continue to be called as Dugarajapatnam port. However, Tupilipalem may lose its tag as a virgin beach destination for tourists and we may still have opposition from local fishing community.
The Nellore district administration has proposed to acquire 5,028 acres of land in and around Tupilipalem village, of which about 2,152 acres is government land, 948 acres is reserve forest land and nearly 651 acres is community forest land. Only about 1,200 acres have been identified as patta land owned by locals, which may require about Rs.126 crore for relief and rehabilitation.
Phase-I of the port project is expected to be commissioned by 2018 and the whole project will be completed by 2020. Currently, 12 major ports (Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Kolkata (Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin, Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin and Kandla) handle 75 per cent of the total cargo traffic in India.
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