Kerala to invite fresh global tender for Vizhinjam: CM

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 7 (UNI) The Kearla Government has decided to invite a fresh global tenders for the proposed Vizhinjam Port, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan informed today.

Briefing Cabinet decision to reporters here, he said the the government decided to go for a fresh global tenders to build the port in the wake of Centre's refusal to give clearance for the earlier tender won by a consortium of two Chinese firms, citing security reasons.

An all-party delegation from Kerala led by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to review the government's decision to deny security clearance to the Rs 43.40 billion deepwater international container transhipment terminal, near here.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, the Shipping Ministry had asked the State Government to include a clause in the fresh global tenders that bids would be subject to security clearance.

Earlier, the tender had won by the two Chinese companies--Kaidi Electric Power Company and the China Harbour Engineering Company--part of a three-member consortium.

The third company was Mumbai-based Zoom Developers and they had been given permission to begin construction by the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government led by Mr Oommen Chandy.

The biggest advantage that Vizhinjam has over all other ports in the country is that there is no need for any dredging at all as the natural depth at Vizhinjam is 24 metre which is by far the best in comparison to all other ports in the world.

Moreover, it lies very close to the international waters, which is a busy route as of now.

The proposed project would to cater the need of international transhipment in a port in India itself. Once the project was completed, the port can cater to container carrier vessel sizes of 8,000 TEU in phase I and 10,000 and 12,000 TEUs subsequently.

The Cabinet also decided to appoint Mr V K Baby, IAS, as the Disaster Management Secretary for Tsunami rehabiliation and Mr A T James as the General Manager of Civil Supplies Corporation and Mini Antony as Kochi Corporation Secretary, he added.

UNI