The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday allowed the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board (APMB) to start work on a greenfield port and a mega shipbuilding cluster at Dugarajapatnam in Tirupati District. This is part of the Shipbuilding Development Scheme (SbDS) from the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways. The APMB has already signed a MoU with Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA) for this project. The initiative supports the Maritime India Vision 2030, which plans to make India one of the top five shipbuilding nations by 2047. The goal is to increase shipbuilding output from 0.01 million gross tonnage (GT) to 4.50 million GT yearly. To build the port and cluster, the state will create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). The government is acquiring 2,000 acres of land for this. The APMB will transfer the land to the SPV as the state's equity in the scheme. The project includes an anchor shipyard with a capacity of 0.50 million GT per year. The shipyard aims to reach this capacity within 10 years of starting operations. The APMB is authorised to take all steps under the SPV to move the project forward within the scheme's guidelines.