Vijayawada: In a major boon to the aqua industry, state govt has decided to develop mega aqua park near Nizampatnam harbour. This would be the first integrated aqua park in the country.
Andhra Pradesh govt has earmarked 192 acres of land for development of the park. It has issued a govt order (GO) sparing land for integrated aqua park. The project is a joint venture of Centre and state govt.
The integrated aqua park would be developed with 190 crore. While Centre will give 112 crore, they rest 78 crore will be spent by the state.
It is recalled that the project was originally granted to the state about four years ago when the Centre agreed to take up the project with a cost of 88 crore. However, the project could not take off as the then state govt did not release its share of funds to launch the work.
Recently, the TDP-led NDA govt has revived the project with a request to the Centre to revise the project cost. State govt has also promised to take additional burden. Taking state govt’s request into consideration, the Centre has redesigned the project and revised the project cost to 190 crore from the previous 88 crore. The Centre had also increased its share from 52 crore to 112 crore keeping in view of the revised cost.
Sources said that Bapatla district administration is gearing up to conduct the formal ground-breaking ceremony on Nov 21 to mark the celebration of world fishermen day. Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is likely to lay the foundation stone for the big-ticket project.
This project is not only going to help aqua farmers of Bapatla district but also, hundreds of aqua farmers from other coastal districts. Presently, the aqua farmers are travelling to Chennai, Pondicherry, Rameshwaram, and Ramanathapuram to get quality seeds of various varieties of fish and prawns.
The proposed aqua park in Nizampatnam would bring the ordeals of the local aqua farmers and also industrialists to an end.
