What Hyderabad is to TS, Coastline is to AP!

Despite retaining the money spinning Hyderabad, Telangana is still at loss losing the coastline advantage. The new state is now the only state in South India which does not possess a coast line. Presence of coast is crucial for business like marine based industries and export based industries. These industries usually have huge metric tonnes of export every day and they normally prefer the sea mode transportation which is the cheapest.

Also the presence of coast line is mandatory for setting up of nuclear power plants which are seen as the future for power generation. 14 of the world’s 17 largest cities are located along the coast and 11 of these are Asian Cities including Bangkok, Jakarta, Mumbai and Shanghai. Studies suggest that these cities have made their presence felt across the globe due to making best use of their coastlines.

On the other side, Telangana will have to depend on AP (nearest Machilipatnam Port) for import or export of essential commodities. Also the state can not derive any benefit from Sea based Tourism. At present, Andhra Pradesh has 14 notified non-major ports out of which only four ports — Kakinada, Gangavaram, Krishnapatnam and Ravva handle cargoes. The capacity of these ports is 90 million tonnes per annum and Chandra Babu Naidu is keen on developing all the existing and new ports to make use of 974 kms long coast line.