A director board meeting of the Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL) here on Wednesday gave in-principle approval for the master plan of the proposed multi-crore Vizhinjam international container transshipment terminal project. Phase I of the project is estimated to cost Rs 4,010 crore and includes a plan for a cruise terminal.
The meeting also gave the nod to include three CSR projects in the EIA report for the project, Ports Minister K Babu said.
They are; establishment of a seafood park and skill development centre near the project area, development of infrastructure at the Vizhinjam fisheries harbour and upgradation of the government upper primary school at Mulloor to a high school.
All this will come under a Vizhinjam Port City Area Development Plan which will be taken up alongside the development of the seaport. Wednesday’s board meeting also decided to speed up land acquisition at Kottukal on fast-track basis for warehousing, VISL CEO A S Suresh Babu said.
The meeting reviewed the statements filed by stakeholders at a public consultation held by project consultants International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Tuesday. K Babu said that the local people will be taken into full confidence in implementing the multi-crore port project.
The director board also decided to hand over the EIA report to the Kerala State Pollution Control Board so that public hearings can be held. The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) tenders for the construction of the port will be floated globally after obtaining environment clearance for the project.
Ministers P K Kunhalikutty, K M Mani, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, V S Sivakumar, Chief Secretary K Jayakumar, Finance Secretary V P Joy and Ports Secretary James Varghese attended the meeting.
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