Minister for Ports Kadannappally Ramachandran has said the government will not provide Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Limited, the concessionaire for the Vizhinjam seaport project, any exemption in the penalty clause that could soon be invoked against the company for overshooting the deadline for the initial phase of the project.
He informed the Assembly on Tuesday that the government had served the concessionaire with a notice after the latter failed to honour its agreement to complete the construction of the related works by December 3, 2019.
Damages
The agreement included provisions for a nine-month cure period, during which damages could be sought after the first three months.
As such, the company would be required to complete the phase within September 2020, following which the government could seek a daily fine of 0.1% of the performance security (₹120 crore), amounting to ₹12 lakh, Mr. Ramachandran said, while responding to questions raised by V.S. Sivakumar, M. Vincent, K.S. Sabarinadhan T.J. Vinod, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, and O. Rajagopal.
Failing to pay penalty
The Minister added that the government would resort to deducting equivalent amounts from its project share if the concessionaire failed to pay the penalty.
According to him, the company had attributed the delay to the difficulty in sourcing granite for the project. He, however, blamed the company of poorly planning the execution of the project. Despite being awarded the contract in December 2015, the company had applied for quarrying licence only in April 2018. They have currently been issued no-objection certificates for mining from 19 quarries in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta.
Elaborating on the progress of the ₹7,525-crore project, Mr. Ramachandran said only 20% of the 3.1-km-long breakwater had been completed so far. Around 40% of dredging had been undertaken. Three of the four required tugboats were in place.
The preparation of pre-cast structures for piling, beams and slabs that were required for constructing the container berth had been completed. Besides, a contract had already been signed for constructing eight cranes that would be required for shifting containers.