As the trial operation of Kerala’s dream project, Vizhinjam International Seaport —India’s first deepwater transhipment port — officially commenced on Friday, a political row erupted in the state as both fronts vied to claim credit for the project.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the official function held in the state capital to commence the trial operations. However, the official function triggered a row after the government snubbed opposition leader V.D. Satheeshan by not extending him an invitation.
The construction of this mega transhipment port started during the reign of Oommen Chandy-led UDF government, though a vast majority of construction happened during Pinarayi Vijayan government 1.0 and 2.0. However, the Chief Minister, ironically, failed to mention Oommen Chandy or his government’s contributions in his inaugural speech.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor announced in advance that he would skip Friday’s function, citing the government's failure to rehabilitate and compensate hundreds of seafaring fisher families displaced by the port. Notably, Tharoor had claimed that the Adani Group came forward to bid for the construction of the port after he spoke to Gautam Adani about it when the two met on a flight.
Vizhinjam had an ancient port that was prominent until the 14th century, destroyed in the conflicts between the Chera and Chola dynasties. The first attempt for a modern port in Vizhinjam occurred in the 1940s when the Travancore kingdom conducted a feasibility survey. Then Diwan (Prime Minister) Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyer even held talks with an international firm, but the plan did not result in a port.
Container ship San Fernando reaches Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL) as seen from Aazhimala Shiva Temple, in Thiruvananthapuram | PTI
Fifty years later, in the early 1990s, K. Karunakaran’s UDF government made the next move to study the feasibility of a port. The subsequent E.K. Nayanar’s LDF government sanctioned a contract on build, operate, and transfer conditions, but the project did not take off. In 2001, the UDF returned to power and called for an international tender for port construction, but the project faced further roadblocks. During the LDF period starting in 2006, infrastructure development measures were taken at Vizhinjam, with a Chinese company applying for the contract, but the then Union government did not approve it.
Finally, it was the Oommen Chandy government of the UDF that took decisive measures to build the port and bring the Adani Group into the project. Though the LDF had protested the agreement signed for this project, the Chandy government moved ahead.
The LDF government of Vijayan came to power after the Adani Group started construction of the port under a PPP model. Interestingly, Kerala’s port minister V.N. Vasavan told a national daily yesterday that even now the LDF does not believe the agreement signed for the project protected the state’s interests, despite the state government covering 66 per cent of the total project cost. The minister also claimed that the LDF continued the port's construction as it was not right to annul the agreement after work started in 2015.
In his inaugural speech, Chief Minister Vijayan listed the efforts different LDF governments made for the port. "On September 18, 2006, the LDF government announced that it will attempt to get regulatory nod for this port. And, on March 9, 2007, a re-tender order came, putting VISL as the nodal agency," he said in his speech.
"On November 13, 2009, the International Finance Corporation was appointed for a study. In 2010 tender processes started. Then came the legal hurdles. Some raised allegations regarding the involvement of a Chinese company, and the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre denied permission; it is all history."
Vijayan also noted that in 2012, the LDF held public conventions and a protest that continued for 212 days and that in 2013, global tenders were floated for the port, before proceeding to explain how his government removed the roadblocks in the construction stage of the port.
