Vijayawada: The Union government has ruled out the possibility of setting up Greenfield shipyard in Visakhapatnam. Minister of state (Defence) Dr Subhash Bhamre has made it very clear that the Union Ministry of Defence did not make any request to the AP government for land allotment. The state government is astonished to note the same, as the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) had sent its representatives to Russia for having a dialogue with United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), over the setting up of Greenfield shipyard last year.
After returning from Russia, the EDB representatives stated that USC has expressed its willingness for collaboration. On October 12 last year, the USC, the largest shipbuilding corporation in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the APEDB had inked a memorandum of understanding to pave the way for shipbuilding activity. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has invited the USC, its major partners and subsidiaries engaged in civil and defence shipbuilding industry, to India and AP to set up their base. A number of naval ships and submarines have been supplied to India by the USC and its subsidiaries and partners.
Apart from aerospace and defence, the Chief Minister wanted the Russian investors to set up a steel plant in Rayalaseema region. A subsidiary of USC, Sudoexport, is studying the inland waterway project and has made exploratory visits to AP, according to a release of EDB last year. But in contrary, MoS (Defence) Dr. Subhash Bhamre replied to Rajya Sabha member V. Vijaysai Reddy’s unstarred question that the USC had not come forward to set up a Greenfield shipyard in Visakhapatnam.
Regarding the further questions that as to whether it was a fact that the MoD sought allotment of land from the state government of Andhra Pradesh or not, and whether the MoD requested the state government to allot land for this project or not, if so the details thereof, the MoS (Defence) stated in writing that the question does not arise for the points since the corporation did not approach the Union government at all.
