State to go ahead with Vizhinjam Trans-shipment Project

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 7 (UNI) Kerala Ports and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Vijayakumar today said the state would go ahead with the Vizhinjam Trans-shipment Project and is expected to call fresh global tenders within eight months.

Talking to mediapersons here, he said as per the Centre's direction, the state government would submit the fresh details on tender with certain changes to the Centre in two weeks and preparations were on at final stages.

Since the Centre had denied the first tender citing security reasons, the fresh tenders would be considered only subject to security clearance, Mr Vijayakumar added.

As per the new Central guidelines, the implementation of the project would be through the Viability Gap Fund (VGP) system, which according to him the state would get 20 per cent of the total cost of the project as grant instead of a repayment loan as in the previous tender.

UNI