Chief Minister inaugurates construction of Vizhinjam port

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated the construction of International Multipurpose Seaport at Vizhinjam on Saturday.

The ground breaking ceremony was attended by Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Kerala Minister for Excise K. Babu, Speaker N. Sakthan, Kerala Minister for Health and Family Welfare V. S. Sivakumar, Kerala Minister for Water Resources P. J. Joseph, Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, Chairman of Adani Group Goutan Adani and his son and Executive Director Karan Adani, among others.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that all that is needed would be done for the rehabilitation of people affected by the project. The government had already issued order regarding the rehabilitation package.

Mr. Gadkari announced that the proposed port would be granted exemption from Cabotage law. Orders in this regard would be issued shortly.

The Opposition kept of the function in protest against presence of Mr. Babu and the Chief Minister who were facing allegations.

Earlier, Mr. Adani met CPI (M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to seek support for the project. Though he later said that CPI (M) had supported the project, Mr. Balakrishnan said that the party disagreed with terms of the project agreement between government and the Adani group. While, the State and Central governments were investing Rs. 3098 crores, the Adani group was spending only Rs. 2454 crores. Yet, it needed to share only one per cent of the profit for 20 years. The group was permitted to use 30 per cent of the land acquired for real estate projects.

The CPI (M) leader said that the rehabilitation of fishermen who would be rendered jobless was yet to be done. The LDF had proposed a landlord approach instead of private public partnership for the project that would have allowed for reservation in jobs.

Meanwhile, Mr. Adani has assured that locals would be employed both at the construction and operation stage of the project.  People would be trained to take up jobs at the operation stage.