more-in Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari will launch several projects worth over ?6,000 crore here on Friday. The projects include four lane of NH-16 from Ichapuram to Narsannapeta and six-lane widening of Ranasthalam to Narsannapeta (total ?1,800 crore), six laning from Ranasthalam to Anandapuram worth ?2,013 crore, four lane widening of Port Connectivity Road at a cost of ?549 crore and grade separator by Visakhapatnam Port under Sagarmala on NH-7 to decongest traffic. Mr. Gadkari, who arrived here on Wednesday night to take part in the two-day all India major port chairmen’s conference, will formally inaugurate India’s largest 24 million tonne iron ore handling complex, built by Essar Vizag Terminal Ltd (EVTL) at a cost of ? 830 crore. He will dedicate the state-of-the-art facility to the nation. Essar is a BOT operator of Visakhapatnam Port Trust. With its advanced cargo handling equipment, the iron ore handling complex will have the fastest vessel turnaround time of 120,000 tonne per day for iron ore among Indian ports. Following the project completion, the cargo loading capacity of the facility has been upgraded to 24 million tonne. The iron ore handling complex, which has a berth length of 325 metres, can now berth Super Capesize vessels up to 200,000 DWT, with a depth of 20 metres, on the outer harbour of VPT. EVTL has made investments in ramping up capacity and installing the latest cargo handling equipment at the complex, which include a 27 tips/hour twin-tippler and a 8,000 tonne per hour ship-loader. Hi-tech crane Mr. Gadkari will also launch hi-tech crane handling equipment acquired by Visakha Container Terminal Private Ltd at a cost of ?151 crore. VCTPL, one of the BOT operators of Visakhapatnam Port, operates the container terminal. The company is expected to launch work shortly on ? 845-crore expansion project.

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