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The ambitious Vizhinjam container transshipment terminal project is all set to be showcased at the Emerging Kerala summit opening in Kochi this month with the hope of landing investors.
Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL), the State Government company in charge of the multi-crore project, is preparing to keep its eyes skinned for potential investors interested in running the port for 30 years and, equally importantly, building it.
At Emerging Kerala, Vizhinjam is going to be highlighted with the same intentions that spurred the government on five years ago when a Special Investors’ Meet was organised to promote the project globally, but the strategy is going to be a different one this time.
‘’There will be a general presentation of the project at the summit by the Ports Secretary, but what we are really looking at are one-to-one meetings with potential investors and representatives of various Embassies,’’ VISL CEO A S Suresh Babu said.
A number of countries, including the UK, Japan, Germany and Canada, had over the past months shown an interest in the project.
In July, the Government had decided to start afresh the search for a private port operator, and is also preparing to float global construction tenders once the EIA is through. In fact, the Emerging Kerala meet has offered it an ideal platform for pushing the project. In April 2007, the State Government had organised a Special Investors’ Meet for the Vizhinjam ICTT dream, the first of its kind held in the State for a single project. Forty-three companies attended, though in the end little had come of it.
Five years later, the project has come a long way in terms of groundwork, such as geophysical surveys, land acquisitions and EIA. But the main chores remain; landing a private partner to run the port and its actual construction.
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