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| Kerala wants Centre to take up Rs 4,500 cr Vizhinjam port Project |
| Press Trust of India / Thiruvananthapuram Jun 25, 2009, 15:29 IST |
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The Kerala government today suggested that the Centre should take up the Vizhinjam port project as it had the potential to earn over Rs 1,000 crore foreign exchange.
Lanco Kondapally Power Private Ltd pulled out from the Rs 4,500-crore Vizhinjam International Deep Sea Transhipment Terminal near here, citing uncertainty connected with the project.
Kerala Minister for Law and Ports M Vijayakumar said in the Assembly that Lanco had cited uncertainty connected with the project as the main reason for backing out of the development of the Vizhinjam port, which would become the country's premier port, once it became functional.
Vijayakumar suggested that the Centre take up the project because as per a Planning Commission report, the country could earn foreign exchange of Rs 1,000 crore from the port after its commissioning.
He said the government would convene an all-party meeting to arrive at a consensus to decide the future course of action on the project.
"The Government wants the project to be implemented at any cost and did not wish to be bogged down in further controversies," he said while replying to a notice for an adjournment motion moved by Congress-led UDF Opposition on the matter.
Vijayakumar also said International Port Lobby was working against the project and sought the Opposition cooperation in implementing the dream project of the state that would play a vital role in boosting not only the state's economy but the country as a whole. Leader of the Congress-led UDF opposition Oommen Chandy said opposition would extend all help to the government for implementing the project.
On the minister's suggestion that Centre should take over the project, he said it would only further complicate the issue. Instead,he wanted the government to work out a strategy to proceed further on the matter.
Chandy said it was a mystery why Lanco withdrew from the project now as all legal wrangles had come to an end.
The project, conceived a decade ago, took final shape when the previous UDF government was in power, but it could not get security clearance from the Centre.
The project got entangled in legal battle after Mumbai based Zoom Developer,who had also bid for the project, challenging the government decision to award the contract to Lanco.
Hyderabad-based Lanco was awarded the project on build-operate-transfer basis in May last year through global tender by the LDF government which reviewed the project after it came to power three years ago.
Vizhinjam,a natural port located close to the international ship route, when functional, was expected to be a competitor to the ports of Colombo,Singapore and Dubai.
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