By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Developers of the Vizhinjam port project, to be developed in Vizhinjam near Kerala’s famous tourist destination Kovalam, Saturday held talks with the state government, seeking environmental clearance for the project.
An official from the port minister’s office told IANS that officials from the Hyderabad-based Lanco Kondapalli Power Pvt Ltd, Malaysia’s Pembinaan Redzai Sdn Bhd and Lanco Infrastructure Ltd, part of the consortium that is building the project, participated in talks with the government.
The project has got all clearances, except the environmental clearance, said the official, who did not want to be identified.
“The only one that is left is the environmental clearance and that has to be taken by the companies themselves. For that, the government has to give certain papers and today (Saturday) we had talks about such things,” he added.
Once complete, the port would handle 4.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) per annum. Currently, the country’s 12 major ports together handle 4.61 million TEUs per annum.
The state government will invest Rs.1.6 billion ($35.5 billion) to set up the basic infrastructure like water, electricity, railways tracks and roads.
A major advantage of Vizhinjam port will be that with a natural depth of 24 metres – among the deepest in the world – it would not require any dredging.