Krishnapatnam Port is a major port and market centre. It is situated at a distance of 24 km from Nellore City inNellore District, the southernmost coastal district in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India and 200 kilometer north of Chennai. It has handled 30 million tonne of cargo in its first 12 months of operations. 10 deep water berths are operational at the port now,(for coal, iron ore and general cargo) and 2 breakwaters. It will soon have additional 35 berths, with facilities to handle containers etc.
Krishnapatnam is one of the very few ports in the world which can handle giant ships with load capacities of 1,50,000 tonnes. It has became one of the deepest port of India with 18 meters of draft.
Krishnapatnam port is being upgraded into India's biggest privately owned world-class port. It is being upgraded by the Navayuga Company. Iron ore and granite is being exported from this port to other countries like China.
Krishnapatnam Port is connected to the National Highway-5 through a state highway. The authorities have also constructed a dedicated 25 km road to NH-5 and a railway line connecting the Chennai-Howrah broad gauge line near Venkatachalam. Six helipads have also been built.
Initially a single line railway via Venkatachalam and a four lane road are serving the port with provisions to augment to double railway line and 2 additional lanes of road in future. A New Broad Gauge Rail Line between the port and the Bellary - Hospet Iron Ore Mines has been sanctioned under a Special Purpose Company. A pipeline corridor is established for liquid bulk transport to the nearest 7 oil refineries, Apart from a dedicated belt conveyor corridor for transport of coal to the nearest 10 mega thermal power stations around the port.
There is an 4000 MW UMPP (Ultra Mega Power Plants (India)) with investment of Rs17,500 Crores is being constructed here. The bid for the same was awarded to Reliance Power Limited (part of ADA-G)which quoted a tariff of INR 2.33296/ kWh to win the bid. Government has mandated use of imported coal for coastal UMPPs to ensure adequate supply of coal for other domestic power producers/ industries (for which using imported coal would not be feasible due to prohibitive inland transporting costs). Besides, coastal location of UMPPs made it feasible to import coal on account of economical transportation facilities of better quality coal available from mines in Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, etc. This project is one of the 9 UMPP's that have been envisaged by the Power Finance corporation to have "Power for all by 2012. Besides this UMPP, APGENCO is setting a 1600 MW plant at Krishnapatnam. The port is being expanded in phase 2 with the construction of 7 more berths and additional dredging to cater for this coal cargo.
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