(Photo: Vizhinjam International Seaport).
On the National Highway 66 route from Thiruvananthapuram to Vizhinjam—located 20 kilometres from the city centre—dozens of hoardings and banners have been installed seeking to take credit for making India’s first deep-water mother port a reality. In the run-up to the high-profile commissioning on May 2, the ruling Left, the Congress and the BJP had embarked on getting the maximum mileage out of the event in Kerala.
The Vizhinjam International Seaport was commissioned this afternoon with much fanfare by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, almost six months after commercial operations began back in December. The Congress boycotted the event after the organisers didn’t extend an invite to Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan, even if the Member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor was in attendance, along with legislator M Vincent.
Why this port matters
The Vizhinjam Port is a significant infrastructural milestone not only for Kerala, but for the country as a whole as the only transshipment terminal in the Indian subcontinent. It has a natural depth of 20 metres, and is located strategically within 10 nautical miles off the international shipping lane. Until now, India had to depend on ports outside the country to dock the Ultra-Large Container Vessels (ULCVs), from where the cargo containers were transported to smaller vessels, before reaching Indian ports.
That also meant foregoing valuable revenue, estimated to the tune of $220 million annually. In the case of Vizhinjam, the natural depth of 20 meters—the highest in the country—also means not spending on seasonal dredging, as it happens in many ports across the country. This became a challenge during the construction of the breakwater spanning 3 kilometers, as stones laid kept getting displaced through the water currents amid challenging climactic conditions. That’s history now as the long-cherished dream of Keralites has turned into a reality.
The favourable circumstances notwithstanding, it took decades of politicking to realise the Vizhinjam dream. Having been floated as a possibility right from the pre-independence era of the Travancore kingdom, Vizhinjam has always been a topic of debate in Kerala.
Politicians who moved the needle
Serious efforts to bring about the port began only post the liberalization era, with then CM K Karunakaran and minister MV Raghavan taking the lead.
Things didn’t move much until Oommen Chandy took special interest in the project in his second term as CM in 2011. He got Jairam Ramesh, then environment minister, to expedite the clearances. As soon as the detailed project report (DPR) got approved in 2013, a global tender was floated within 24 hours, with the land acquisition formalities nearly completed by 2014.
The project saw a lot of challenges those days as the opposition Left was dead against it, accusing the CM of corruption—with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) organ Deshabhimani carrying a series of stories against the project. The biggest challenge was post the floating of the global tender, as the Adani group turned out to be the sole bidder.
With the Congress High Command’s aversion to the group, Chandy had to stake it all, almost like Dr Manmohan Singh’s stellar role in seeing through the Indo-US nuclear deal. Chandy managed to convince the Gandhis and Adani made a famous visit to AKG Centre, the CPI-M headquarters, before the project became a reality.
Delays on account of multiple reasons
However, the agreement signed in 2015 September envisaged the completion of the first phase of the port in 1000 days, although Cyclone Ockhi and other unforeseen circumstances such as Covid-19, public protests against sea erosion and non-compliance of rehabilitation packages becoming stumbling points.
Even as far as the Lok Sabha election last year, Vizhinjam was theatre to a huge protest running into months—with the Latin Christian fisherfolk and the Church backing them made temporary stoppage of work a necessary condition to a truce. And that is where the incumbent CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s willpower to stand his ground facilitated the continuation of work, leading to the commissioning on May 2.
At that stage the opposition Congress was backing the protesters, with Shashi Tharoor being the only opposition leader of note to not succumb to public pressure.
Of course, the Kerala government work has left a lot to be desired by failing to extend the Rs 475 crore package on rehabilitation, meaning that there are still displaced fisherfolk living in warehouses. The state government also failed to ensure the road and rail connectivity to the port in time for the commissioning—meaning it would take more time to ensue export and import of goods from the port. Until then, Vizhinjam shall operate exclusively as a transshipment terminal.
Kerala underwrites the major part of the construction cost
That said, a resource-crunched Kerala has spent almost Rs 5,600 crore of the total cost of Rs 8,867.17 crore, with the Adani group spending Rs 2,454 crore and the Centre extending Rs 817.8 crore as viability gap fund.
The next stage of the construction will be inaugurated as early as early as next month, with Adani group to spend the whole Rs 9,000 crore as per the pact, which should be ready by 2028, when Vizhinjam will rival the biggest ports in the world.
Even before that Vizhinjam will pose stiff competition to Colombo and other nearby ports, with Kerala set to make revenue through taxes even before getting a share of the profits. Kerala hasn’t yet accorded Vizhinjam a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status, which would give it further push.
For a state seeking big-ticket projects, Vizhinjam Port is set to change the face of Kerala like how Shenzhen did it for China, if only the administrators move in quickly to make it a hub of activity. That way Kerala can finally achieve financial stability after borrowings threatened to break the back of its economy in recent times.
