Veteran CPI-M leader V.S.Achuthanandan on Thursday opposed the handing over the proposed Vizhinjam port in Kerala to Adani Ports.

 

 

 In a statement issued here, he said that it is most unfortunate that Kerala's dream project Vizhinjam port has been handed over to a private player, the Adani Group, headed by Gautam Adani who is known to be the close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

 "Modi in a way has become the lead player in handing over lot of projects to the Adani group, especially in Gujarat. Even the next unit of the Cochin Shipyard is going to be commissioned in Gujarat," said Achuthanandan, a former chief minister of Kerala.

 

 On Wednesday, Kerala Ports Minister K. Babu said the final call on making the dream Vizhinjam port project a reality will be taken by the Kerala cabinet next week after the board of directors of the proposed port under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy approved the empowered committee decision of going ahead with the project after Adani Ports, last month, turned out to be the lone bidder for building the Vizhinjam port.

 

 "It's sad that when Modi is giving entry to Adani group in several key areas and here Chandy is playing second fiddle to Modi in bringing in Adani. During our tenure, we always held all party meetings to take forward projects, but Chandy is indulging in undesirable acts," said Achuthanandan.

 

 Speaking to IANS, Babu however said it is hypocritical of Achuthanandan to oppose Adani ports now, when in his tenure (2006-11), his government had contacted  Adani for the proposed Vizhinjam port.

 

 "In the next few days, I will be meeting the media to expose the Left and their ways of confusing the people of the state," he said.

 

 The Rs.4,000 crore first phase of the port is to come up near the famed Kovalam beach and is expected to be completed in three phases, with the first phase to be ready by 2019.

 

 Adani Ports was the lone bidder and had sought Rs.1,635 crore as grant for the proposed port project.

 

 Last month, this became the first port project in the country to get a Rs.800 crore viability gap funding from the central government.

 

 Once completed, ships with a capacity of even 18,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) could dock here.

 

 The proposed port, located close to the busy international shipping route, is envisaged to handle 4.1 million containers annually.

 

 This project has been on the drawing board of several successive state governments and Chandy has gone on record stating that if Vizhinjam was in any other state, the port would have been operational several years back.