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Thiruvananthapuram , Nov. 16

THE Capital City Development Forum, a group formed to promote the development of Thiruvananthapuram, has exhorted the Union Government to take immediate steps to establish an international container transhipment terminal at Vizhinjam near the city.

Addressing a press conference in the city on November 15, Member of Parliament and patron of the forum, Mr Varkala Radhakrishnan, said Vizhinjam is one of the few natural harbours in the country that has the features required to become a good container transhipment terminal. It is the only harbour in India with a natural depth of over 25 metres, which is required for establishing a container terminal, he added. In fact, creating the harbour at Vizhinjam will require no investment in operations such as dredging, he emphasised.

Mr M. Vijayakumar, Chairman of the Capital City Development Forum, pointed out that the development of Vizhinjam as a container transhipment terminal would benefit not just Kerala, but the country as whole as India does not currently have such a facility and relies on Colombo and Singapore for such services.

Establishing a container transhipment facility at Vizhinjam also makes sense given that several major international maritime routes cross Vizhinjam, he added. The forum has also appealed to the Government of India to ensure that Thiruvananthapuram is included in the National Highway Development Project.

The city is the only State capital that has not been included in this project, Mr Radhakrishnan claimed.

Immediate action must be taken by the Central and State Governments to rectify this anomaly, he said.

Further development of the Thiruvananthapuram airport and setting up of a High Court Bench in the city are some other demands put forward by the forum. Given the city's location on the flight path of several intercontinental flights, the Government should allow the city's airport to offer refuelling facilities to these flights, said Mr Radhakrishnan.

Work on the construction of a new terminal for the airport should be expedited, he added.

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