Vizhinjam port may miss extended deadline too

Thiruvananthapuram: Having ruled out any possibility of meeting the December 2019 deadline for completing the first phase of Vizhinjam International Seaport project, Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Limited (AVPPL), which is entrusted to develop and operate the port, is now even doubtful of commissioning the port by October 2020, as promised by its CEO Rajesh Jha a couple of months back.
Though the company claims good progress and completion of several components like the 800m berth, electric substation and administrative, immigration and customs buildings in time, the completion of 3.1km breakwater remains a distant dream. Going by the current daily supply of 2,000-2,500 metric tonnes of granites at site for construction of breakwater against the total requirement of 70 lakh metric tonnes, it would take another 7-8 years for its completion.
“Achieving targets or meeting deadlines fully depend on clearances required for operating our own mines in the district and the neighbouring ones to source rocks in time. Of the 21 applications the company submitted one after another starting from April 2018, only one has been able to secure an environmental clearance so far,” said an official from AVPPL.
The mines have been identified in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta districts. “Several of them are in the revenue land allotted to AVPPL, and the company has given applications for direct operation, while the rest are to be made operational in partnership with other private owners, where AVPPL will have a stake on 50% of the granites to be produced,” the official said.
Six out of the 21 proposed mines have secured a letter of intent (LoI) and mining plan approval from the department of mining and archaeology, and a few have received NOCs from respective district collectors. After clearing initial procedures, the application on one mine has now been submitted before the state environment impact assessment authority (SEIAA).
“But, we will not be depending entirely on these mines. We will be sourcing 25% of the 70 lakh MT required from neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu,” the official pointed out.
The AVPPL has now 4-5 private suppliers, which are now supplying 2,000-2,500 MT at the site (by land mode) on a daily basis. Besides, 6,000 MT of rocks are being brought from Tamil Nadu in barges every week. The company also brought 30,000 MT of granite from Mundra Port in Gujarat in February and around 5,000 MT later from its loadout facility in Kollam to speed up breakwater construction.
The onset of monsoon will further delay the works, which will make it impossible to meet the 2019 deadline.