Though the State government has been maintaining that the first phase of the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multi-purpose Seaport would be commissioned by May 2023, the current spectrum of protest against the seaport by the fishermen and their families are expected to give more headroom for the Adani Group which develops the all-weather port, in the next round of negotiation as it is almost sure that the port developer would miss the March deadline.
Despite the State government asking the port developer to go ahead with the work disregarding the protest, the construction works have been stopped following the fishermen’s protest in front of the port premises. A senior officer with the Adani Group said the work has been stopped as the company doesn’t want a confrontation with the local people. All the issues raised by the protesters were supposed to be addressed by the State government and not by the port developer. The Supreme Court itself made it clear that a project of national importance should not be stopped for fishermen. So, first, the State should create an atmosphere where the work can be taken forward without any issues, he said.
According to the operational calendar, the first ship will have to call at Vizhinjam in March 2023. It was also agreed to commission the first phase of the project by September 2023 on the occasion of Onam. Interestingly, the Centre government said in Parliament last week said as per the information provided by the State government, the phase-I of the port is planned for completion by December 2024 as per the construction schedule submitted by the Concessionaire in June 2022.
On being asked, Ports Minister Ahamed Devarkovil told The Hindu, there would not be any major works during the monsoon period and the full swing of the work is expected to resume by October 1. So the present disruption will not cause any delay in the first phase of commissioning. “Second, we earlier decided to allow ships only after completing an 800-meter-long berthing facility at the port. But now we decided to commission the first phase upon completion of 400-meter berth as almost all the big container vessels are 400 meters long,” said Mr. Devarkovil.
In fact, the port developer could complete only 1.4 km of the total 3.1 km long breakwater so far, a major component of the port construction. Further, only 33 % of the dredging and reclamation of 33 hectares of the sea out of the 53 ha required were completed. Only after the completion of the breakwater works, the remaining dredging, reclamation of the sea, and container berth works can be resumed. “We hope the first vessel carrying equipment for works can berth here by March 2023 and the 400-meter berth would be readied by May 2023, if there are no major issues in the course of the work,” said officials close to the port developer.
