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K.G. Kumar

If an international container terminal at Vizhinjam materialises, the dynamic fishing village may well get its place in the sun.

For long, residents of the two major cities of Kerala - Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram - have been at loggerheads, over the treatment allegedly dealt to them by the authorities.

The former city, commonly known as the commercial capital of Kerala, is often relegated to the status of second class, in favour of the latter, the official capital of the State and its political nerve-centre. And the latter city is neglected on the development and infrastructure fronts, with all the attention going to the commercially glamorous Kochi. Or so the cry babies would have us believe.

Last week, some of the capital's citizens decided to do more than just cry. The Trivandrum Residents Apex Council (TRAC) launched a 24-hour hunger strike in front of the General Post Office. And the Federation of Residents Associations, Thiruvananthapuram (FRAT) began a mass signature campaign all over the district.

Both had the same aim: to urge the Government to approve the construction of an international deepwater container transhipment terminal at Vizhinjam, a thriving fishing village just outside the capital.

According to FRAT leaders, their campaign would result in a memorandum to the Prime Minister to expedite the project, which has been put in cold storage after the Union Government declined security clearance for the Indo-Chinese consortium that had bagged the contract for the project.

The FRAT campaigners feel this is a case of discrimination since the Centre showed no hesitation in approving Chinese companies for the construction of the Sasen power project in Madhya Pradesh and the development of the international airport in Hyderabad.

On the idea of going in for a fresh round of bidding, the leaders fear that a re-tender would prove costly for the project in terms of the time spent to process the bids.

All said and done, there seems to be a fairly strong case for the Vizhinjam terminal, especially in the current context of the global trend in international shipping towards large ships in the range of 6,000-15,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units, the unit of measurement for container capacity). If economies of scale dictate the size of a ship, then ship size itself dictates the size of new ports. That is why votaries of the Vizhinjam project are calling for a mega container transhipment port.

Writing in this paper a fortnight ago, Jose Paul, a former Acting Chairman of the Jawaharlal Nenru Port, New Mumbai, and a Visiting Professor at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, said that of the 5,000 container ships that are likely to be in operation by end-2008, about 1,250 will be over 6,000 TEU. These large ships are the key to port development in India, says Paul.

The largest container port in India - the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in New Mumbai, 32nd largest container port in the world - can only accommodate container ships up to 4,000 TEU, with a draught of 12.5 m.

The new transhipment terminal at Vallarpadam, near Kochi, when it becomes fully operational by about 2010, is unlikely to handle container ships above 6,000 TEU.

Vizhinjam offers a depth of about 20-22 m and is favourably located close to the east-west sea route. These attributes alone make Vizhinjam an excellent choice for a mega container transhipment terminal. The Vizhinjam terminal, if executed well and, more importantly, managed well, could prove a competitor to Colombo in the south, Singapore in the east and Dubai and Salalah in the west.

Now that one of Kerala's most illustrious sons, A. K. Antony, is the Defence Minister, perhaps the security objections to the Vizhinjam project can be overcome. Vizhinjam may well get its place in the sun - and not just as a dynamic fishing village.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

More Stories on : Shipping | Random Walk | Kerala

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