Posted on February 27, 2018
By S. Anil Radhakrishnan, THE HINDU
The deadline set to commission Phase I of the country’s first International Multi-purpose Deepwater Seaport project at Vizhinjam in the State capital by the Adani Group in 1,000 days is to be missed.
“The 1,000 days (December 2019) target is far from reality now and there will be a delay of three to four months as per the current pace of the work,’’ an official associated with the “dream project” told The Hindu .
Critical portion
Only 585m of the 800m berth length to be finished in phase I and 40% of the dredging and reclamation had been completed since works began on December 5, 2015, the official said. The critical portion of the 3.1 km long breakwater in the deep waters is yet to commence.
Of 17,600 Accropode Version II needed for outer phase of breakwater, only 2,200 had been cast. Work on 537 m of the breakwater and 34% of the dredging and reclamation of 13.8 hectares of sea was completed in January 2017 and the slow progress was reflected in the construction as only 48 m of breakwater had been completed since 2017.
The delay is on account of the man-days lost due to local protest allegedly over the damage caused to houses because of drilling near the coast, problems over the procurement of rocks for the breakwater and due to the 7.2m high waves that lashed during the November 30 Ockhi cyclone.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Adani Vizhinjam Ports Ltd (AVPL) Santosh Kumar Mohapatra resigned recently and the mantle has fallen on the new CEO, Rajesh Jha.
Adani Group chairman Gautam S. Adani had announced the 1,000 days target after signing the concession agreement for the project between the State and AVPL in August 2015 though a four-year deadline had been fixed in the pact.
The seaport project, that commenced after a delay of 24 years, is in the thick of controversy over the 2016 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that the agreement signed during the previous UDF tenure would ensure undue gains for the Adani Group. A judicial inquiry ordered by the LDF government in the wake of the C & AG report is on.
Source: THE HINDU
