K.G. Kumar

If Kerala's long-standing container transhipment projects do take off, it could well accelerate the State's movement into a robust maritime economy.

Last week, during a visit to Kochi, Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu announced that the Vallarpadam Container Transhipment Terminal would be completed on schedule, adding that there are no more roadblocks in the path of the project. The Minister was in Kochi to commission the 300-tonne gantry crane at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) and inaugurate the small ships division bay set up at the CSL.

Around the same time, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's Minister for Ports M. Vijayakumar said that the Kerala Government would consider inviting fresh bids for the proposed international container transhipment terminal at Vizhinjam if the Indo-Chinese consortium that won the deal fails to gain security clearance from the Centre.

The consortium that won the Rs 4,200-crore bid reportedly includes a Mumbai-based company, Zoom Developers, and two Chinese firms, Kaidi Electric Company and China Harbour Engineering Company.

If these long-standing projects do actually fructify, they could well accelerate Kerala's movement into a robust and profitable maritime economy that could sustain a spectrum of commercial maritime port-related industries as well as non-commercial and State services.

Marine-related activities in the commercial sector include exploitation and extraction of marine resources (including mineral and living resources), the manufacturing industry and private services. Activities in the non-commercial sector encompass public services, including the Navy, State-run services, education, safety, marine and coastal environment protection, and marine sciences.

So attractive is the potential of becoming a maritime power that several countries have put on top of their agenda the development of maritime infrastructure to support economic growth and the maritime industry. In 1996, China, for instance, formulated a sustainable development strategy for marine programme titled `Ocean Agenda 21'.

According to Vijay Sakhuja, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), the basic ingredients of the Chinese policy were: to effectively safeguard the national maritime rights and interests, rationally develop and utilise marine resources, earnestly protect the marine environment and realise the sustainable utilisation of marine resources. That policy, says Sakhuja, led to the impressive growth of Chinese shipyards, seaports, merchant shipping, sea-borne trade, fishing and the marine tourism industry during the last decade.

More recently, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission (EC), said, "There is a particular need for an all-embracing maritime policy aimed at developing a thriving maritime economy and the full potential of sea-based activity in an environmentally sustainable manner."

The EC believes that such a framework should encompass all the maritime and marine sectors like shipping, ports, shipbuilding, marine equipment, dredging, offshore maritime services and R&D, inland shipping, yachting and fisheries, as well as maintain links with the navies.

That last objective could well prove to be the source of some major obstacles. Maritime affairs are economically and politically driven. Thus it was not surprising to read reports of security concerns thrown up by the possible involvement of foreign companies in the Vizhinjam project.

Apart from these intelligence and strategic concerns, there could be corporate reasons for opposition to such a project. Colombo is already the container transhipment hub for the region. With the strident growth in traffic volumes, the emergence of Vallarpadam is not expected to pose much of a threat to Colombo. However, some analysts feel that the simultaneous emergence of Vizhinjam project could affect Vallarpadam, at least in the early stages. Corporate rivalry could come to the fore, and conspiracy theorists believe that the Vizhinjam project could be scuttled in the process.

That would be a pity, for Kerala needs more than one transhipment hub to cope with the projected volume of container traffic in the region. In any case, the call of a maritime economy should be strong enough to overcome all obstacles.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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