Visakhapatnam Port opens 710-metre promenade; cargo up 8.88% in seven months

People in Visakhapatnam have never had a sanctioned place to stand and watch ships work the harbour. Since Wednesday, 11 November, they have one. Union Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal threw open a Rs 19 crore promenade at Visakhapatnam Port and set foundation stones for further works, a package his ministry valued at about Rs 560 crore.

The walkway hugs the waterfront for about 710 metres between the Venkateswara temple and the International Cruise Terminal, spread over roughly 5.5 acres. Visitors get two viewing decks, a park, an open plaza, parking, a food court and a play area for children. The work sits on port land and leaves cargo handling untouched, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said.

The promenade first appeared in the Rs 276 crore package Sonowal launched at the port on 14 July 2025, when its cost was estimated at Rs 15.90 crore. It has opened about 16 months later at Rs 19 crore, some Rs 3 crore above that figure.

Berths, local jobs and a bigger sewage plant

Sonowal also set foundation stones for three operation-and-maintenance contracts on existing cargo berths: WQ-1 and WQ-1RE, WQ-2 and WQ-3, and EQ-3. The operators must bring in cranes and conveyors to mechanise them, and about 500 local people will be employed, the ministry said. A separate Rs 11 crore project will lift the port’s sewage treatment capacity from 10 million to 15 million litres a day. The treated water is sprayed on roads and stockyards to hold down dust.

What the cargo figures show

Visakhapatnam Port moved a record 91.17 million tonnes of cargo in 2025-26, its fourth year of growth in a row. Set against the 82.62 million tonnes it reported for 2024-25, that is an increase of 8.55 million tonnes, or about 10.3%. Between 1 April and 31 October, traffic was up 4.44 million tonnes, an 8.88% rise on the same months of 2025. On those numbers, the port moved roughly 54.4 million tonnes in the first seven months of the financial year, against about 50 million a year earlier.

Four public-private partnership projects costing about Rs 800 crore are being built and should be ready by 2027, the ministry said. The container terminal can take ships drawing up to 16 metres, and the port is moving to the landlord-port model, in which private operators run the berths.

Sonowal will next address the CII Partnership Summit, its 31st edition, hosted by the Andhra Pradesh government in Visakhapatnam on Thursday and Friday, 12 and 13 November.