According to MT Krishna Babu, chairman of Vizag port in Andhra Pradesh, the port will commence running its entire operations on solar from March. He also said that the Vishakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) has commissioned about 2 MW solar projects. Another 8 MW will be done by 20 March.
He said, “We will be the first major port in the country to run entire port operations on solar energy.” He also said that VPT has invested Rs 60 crore for the setting up of the plants.
Devendra K Rai, Director of the Union Ministry of Shipping had stated that the target is to bring into operation 135 MW of solar power projects by 2020 in eight major ports. These are JNPT, Paradip, Kamarajar, Kandla, V O Chidambaranar, Vishakhapatnam, Kolkata and New Mangalore. Along with this, 50 MW of wind energy projects are also going to be set up in V O Chidambaranar, Chennai and the new Mangalore ports. He also said that they are developing 78 lighthouses as tourist hubs and cruise terminals at Mormugao, Chennai, Mumbai and Cochin.
Furthermore, the Director of Ports, Government of Andhra Pradesh, V Ravi Kumar stated that there are still four more ports to be developed by the state.
