Date:21/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/21/stories/2006092101580200.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Demand to speed up Vizhinjam project

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A special meeting of the Karumkulam `mandalam' of the Nationalist Congress Party has called for a Government initiative to speedily implement the Vizhinjam port project.

The party's appeal on this issue has been sent to the State and Union Governments.

The NGO Janapaksham has also demanded that the State Government start work immediately on the Vizhinjam `mother port' scheme by designating it as a `people's project.'

A press note issued by the organisation said the Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited, the company set up by the State Government, could itself take up this project. The funds for this scheme could easily be found from the money that NRI Malayalis sent to India. In 2005 alone these deposits were to the tune of Rs.100,000 crore. Just about four per cent of this money would be sufficient to set up a `mother port' at Vizhinjam.

The blueprint for the Vizhinjam port was prepared by an Indian company. If the Government has the money upfront for the construction many companies would come forward to take up the project. In such a situation the project's outlay could itself be reduced by half. Moreover, only environmental clearance may have to be had from the Centre. The Centre that runs 12 ports could not withhold permission on such technicalities.

The Centre has now mooted the idea of a port at Colachel. Welcome though the idea is, the fact remains that the port at Vizhinjam would be deeper than any existing or future port in the country. As such the construction of the Vizhinjam port must begin before work is initiated on the setting up of a port elsewhere in the country. This financial year the absence of a mother port at Vizhinjam would cause the nation an estimated financial loss of Rs.2,000 crore.