Port Blair, Nov. 14: The A&N Islands are rapidly progressing on the path of prosperity, growth and development, with plethora of development projects at various stages of execution/ implementation, said Admiral D.K. Joshi (Retd), Lt. Governor, A&N Islands addressing his second press conference after assuming charge.
“Consequent to the directions from the Hon’ble Prime Minister, the Islands Development Agency (IDA) was reconstituted under the Chairmanship of the Home Minister and Lt. Governor is concurrently designated as the Vice Chairman. IDA is mandated for conceptualization and formulation of Integrated Master Plans for Comprehensive Development of all our Island territories (including A&N), to initiate and guide projects and in the execution phase to monitor their implementation. With the support of NITI Ayog, holistic development of several Islands in A&N is being undertaken and various transformational tourism and infrastructure development projects are being executed”, the Admiral explained.
Admiral Joshi further said that the Prime Minister reviewed the projects being steered through IDA on 30.06.2018 and since then several steps have been taken for rapid realization of the vision. These include relaxation in RAP regime for facilitating visit of foreign tourists, proposal for e-visa/ Visa-on-arrival in A&N, identification of unidentified islands / islets/ rocks, beginning of Atal Centre of Ocean Science & Technology for Islands at Port Blair, organizing Investors Conference for tourism projects, constitution of study by IIOPR-Hyderabad towards feasibility of palm oil cultivation etc.
Projects identified for Development in PPP Mode
The following projects in addition to Taj Havelock will entirely change the tourism/ hospitality sector profile in A&N as hitherto no star rated facilities existed in the islands.
1. 42 ha land at Lalaji Bay, Long Island (No. of keys proposed – 220)
2. 25 ha land in Smith Islands (No. of keys proposed – 70)
3. 2.75 ha land in Aves Island (No. of keys proposed – 50)
4. 9.7 ha land near Bharatpur beach in Neil Island.
5. Investors meet held on 10.082018 eliciting tremendous response.
6. Review meeting for final Concession Agreement held on 25.10.2018 under the Chairmanship of Lt. Governor to release bid documents in coming weeks.
7. Both direct and indirect employment generation and linked spin-off benefits to the Islands’ economy.
Admiral Joshi also dwelt upon at length on various sectors spelling the developments taken place and plans in place for further developments. The sectors on which the Lt. Governor dwelt upon include:
Impetus to relations with East and South-East Asian Countries
The Administration has forwarded a series of proposals to act as a “Gateway to ASEAN/East Asia” and to formulate & institutionalize direct trade with SE Asian countries, so as to economize on both time and expenditure. The Prime Minister during his visit to Indonesia had initiated discussions for direct trade ties in view of immense potential for mutual benefits. Subsequently, a 10 member team from A&N Administration/ ACCI had also visited Ache & North Sumatra to promote trade/ tourism, people-to-people and B2B contacts with Indonesia. A team from Indonesia is scheduled to visit A&N Islands towards the end of this month with similar objectives.
The Prime Minister in the IDA review meeting on 30th June 2018 has directed A&N Administration to examine the possibility of directly importing materials from neighbouring countries, for which Administration has sought Customs duty exemption/ levying at a minimal rate. The Administration has also proposed to include west coast ports of Thailand, Malaysia and Northern Ports of Indonesia under “Near Coastal Voyages” scheme and stopover aof international flights at Port Blair. On the domestic side, initiatives are being undertaken for declaration of Port Meadow as a Customs port. Seperately, construction of transshipment port in Great Nicobar Island is also under examination in Govt. of India.
Energy and Water Availability/ Conservation and safe habitat
To improve water availability, PBMC has been laying pipelines across Port Blair area with increased diameter so that water can be provided seamlessly to households. At present 27 MLD of potable water is being supplied to households/ other establishments within Port Blair city. For augmentation of present distribution system to meet the requirement of 40MLD, the work for 25.5 Km water distribution network and a capacity of 8 Lakh liters of water reservoir is in progress under AMRUT scheme. To further increase water availability, project in Rutland has been commissioned and is expected to be completed by January 2020.
The A&N Administration is focusing vigorously on water conservation and utilization of green solar energy. Installation of Solar Rooftop System and Rain Water Harvesting is being made mandatory in Municipal Areas and will be extended to rural areas as well. All new government buildings to be constructed will be built with rain water harvesting facilities and have provision for solar rooftop systems. 17 major government buildings have been identified for retrofitting for rain water harvesting in 2018. As a pilot project, captive rainwater harvesting with 15 Lakh liters storage capacity is being developed at Raj Niwas premises, which depending on rainfall will result in saving about 100 lakh liters of water over one year duration.
Power supply in the islands hitherto was mainly though diesel-based generators. A 10 MW diesel based power plant of NTPC was commissioned on 20.10.2018 to improve power situation in South Andaman. This was a historical event for the power sector in the Islands as for the first time the installed capacity has reached 116 MW. On the same day, as part of green initiative, the A&N Administration signed Power Purchase Agreement with NTPC for setting up a 50 MW LNG based power plant. This, in addition to 45 MWp Solar Power capacity already sanctioned by the Govt. of India and installations underway by CPSUs, is a big stride towards changing the electric energy profile from predominantly diesel-based generation to green energy.
Installation of 1-10 KWp Rooftop Solar Plants on private buildings has started with 70% government subsidy since 2017, under which 26.8 KWp has been already installed on private residential buildings. Similarly, 1 MWp solar rooftop system has been installed in 16 Govt. buildings and PPA has been signed for 3 MWp Solar Rooftop on remaining Govt. Buildings, out of which work of installation at DBRAIT has been completed.
Towards electricity conservation, 4 Lakh LED bulbs have been distributed under UJALA Scheme and PBMC is the 13th Smart City Municipality to totally replace ass Street Lights bulbs with LED. All households have been electrified under Pradhan Mantri Har Ghar Sahej Yojna (Saubhagya), and any new case of un-electrified houses coming up will be electrified soon.
Major efforts are on to review the Master Plan of Municipal area, curb unplanned growth and incorporate adequate safety measures for disaster preparedness during the construction phase with overall objective of achieving a planned and safe habitat.
Shipping:
Steps are being taken with the help of Central Agencies to augment ship repair facilities in the islands. This will give fillip to shipping industry here, reduce time required in ship maintenance and repair, generate employment and help in improving the skill-set of persons associated with shipping sector. A MOU has been signed between Administration and Cochin Shipyard Ltd. in September 2018 for developing and upgrading ship repair facilities at Port Blair including skill development in the sector. Also, holistic assessment of Shipping sector is being undertaken.
The passenger hall at Hut Bay has become functional and a newly built 150 pax Harbour Craft MV Hornbill was inducted in service on 26.05.2018. the extension work of the existing dry dock by ALHW is on fast track and is expected to be completed by December 2018. Also, work for additional approach to Havelock jetty for smooth operation of cargo and movement of passengers as well as a state-of-art passenger terminal at Havelock Jetty under Sagarmala Scheme has been announced on 22.10.2018 by Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, MOS for Road, Shipping, Chemical & Fertilizer.
2 x 500 pax vessels being built for A&N Administration were launched on 30.10.2018 at Cochin Shipyard, Kochi. The work of vessels is progressing ahead of schedule and the vessels are likely to be delivered by July 2019 and December 2019 respectively.
Civil Aviation:
The Administration is committed towards starting of flight services from Port Blair to Car Nicobar, Campbell Bay and Shibpur for which MOU has been signed with the Civil Aviation Ministry. Land acquisition process for the construction of full length airstrips in Shibpur and Campbell Bay is underway and steps initiated to ensure that the airports will be dual-use and available for both commercial and defence aircrafts. Further, efforts are being undertaken for operationalization of Civil Enclave at the Shibpur Airport by December this year.
To promote Heli-Tourism, augmentation of helicopter services using the existing helipads and involving service providers will be worked out by the M/o Civil Aviation in consultation with UT Administration. Previously, Expression of Interest was floated by the Administration and a bidder’s conference was organized on 8th June 2018 at New Delhi. Inter-Islands sea-plane transportation and water terminals in different islands are also being considered.
Roads & Bridges:
Major works of improvement and expansion of National Highway – 4 and upcoming bridges at Middle Strait and Humphrey Strait have been awarded and are in different stages of execution. The issues/ obstacles in execution of works are regularly being followed and taken up with Central Ministries for ensuring timely completion of projects. Maintenance works for whole stretch of NH-4 has been awarded and NHIDCL has committed that by December 2018 end work on major stretches of 330 Km will be completed. Separately, tender has also been issued for preparation of DPR for 2 –lane Chatham-Bambooflat Bridge (with 400 m navigational span). The recent visit of Mansukh Mandaviya has given impetus to several works being undertaken on road and shipping infrastructure front.
In PBMC area, the total urban road comprises of more than 70 Km, out of with 59 km are in good condition and maintenance work for 22.5 m road (which is at DPR stage) would start soon. Work for 80 km rural road has been completed in the last two years under PMGSY and inclusion of additional 264.58 km road under PMGSY has been taken up with Ministry of Rural Development. In-principal approval has been accorded for 6 km, while for rest it is awaited.
Telecom/Internet Connectivity
Tender for Submarine Optical Fibre Cable connecting Chennai and Port Blair and 7 different islands (viz. Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Havelock, Kamorta, Campbell Bay, Rangat and Long Island) have been awarded in May 2018 to a Japanese Firm. Separately, the Administration is also pursuing for redundancy link by undersea Cable with Kolkata.
The available bandwidth is expected to increase from present 1.56 Gbps to over 2 Gbps by end of 2018. Efforts are also being undertaken with target of augmentation of available satellite bandwidth to in excess of 4 Gbps.
Tourism & Industry
The Administration is promoting sustainable tourism which has contributed significantly towards revenue earning, employment generation and maintaining the ecology of these islands. Last year, 487000 tourists visited the islands, showing an increase of 21.80 percent from 2016. This year also the tourist arrival to the islands has witnessed increase. Till October 2018, 402590 tourists have arrived which is 6.13% greater than arrival during the same duration previous year. This is expected to get boost in view of upcoming peak tourism months.
Online booking of tickets for Light & Sound Show at Cellular Jail and Ross Island has been made functional by the Department of IP&T. Several other mega projects in tourism are being undertaken by IDA.
Towards providing impetus to business activities in the islands and support the entrepreneurs, the Administration has formulated a draft Startup Policy which will be operationalized w.e.f. December 2018.
Strengthening of Security of the Islands:
In continuation of the survey of uninhabited islands a s directed by the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri in April 2018, a total of 540 islands/ islets have been surveyed upto 31st Oct. 2018. Further, as per the Islands Development Agency direction in June 2018, joint teams of ANC, Forest Department and Civil Police have been surveyed by night stay at 72 islands and the remaining are being progressed.
Through more pro-active measures, this year 33 poachers and 15 foreign nationals have been apprehended, in comparison to none previous year and 16 poachers and 1 foreign national apprehended in 2016.
The Lt. Governor also dwelt upon Panchayat Raj Institutions & Urban Local Bodies, Health Sector, Agriculture & Fisheries, National Integration and Sports Sector, spelling the plans and developments in the sectors.