MEGAPROJECT: Vizhinjam Container Transshipment Terminal | Under Development

[ajithv]

EIA to finish by June 30th.



Source: Malayala Manorama

[RajeshVR]

Welspun offers only a minor slash


HIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The consortium led by Welspun Infratech Ltd, the lone bidder for the port operator’s post for the Vizhinjam international seaport project, has told the State Government that it can slash its request for grant only by Rs 20 crore. In February, the consortium had sought a grant of Rs 479.54 crore over a period of 16 years from the government. Welspun has also informed the state that it can further reduce its demand by another Rs 20 crore provided it also bags the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for building the port.
The Welspun offer came after two meetings with the bid negotiation committee formed by the State Government over the past weeks. After scrutiny by project consultants International Finance Corporation (IFC), the offer has been placed before the empowered committee led by the Chief Secretary. A decision is awaited, sources said.

[rejithcvcv]

MUMBAI: The Welspun Group-led consortium has agreed to bring down the grant amount it had earlier sought from the Kerala government to operate the Vizhinjam Container Transshipment Terminal.

The consortium, which had earlier asked for a grant of 479 crore, has agreed to lower the amount by 20 crore after the Kerala government asked it to reconsider the bid.

"They (Welspun) have told us that they can bring down the grant amount by 20 crore and once the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract is finalised, they can bring it down by another 20 crore, if they manage to win that project as well," AS Suresh Babu, MD, Vizhinjam Port, told ET.

A consortium led by Welspun group was the only one to submit bids for the Vizhinjam terminal project after the home ministry denied security clearance to Adani group-controlled Mundra Port.

Welspun's offer to lower the proposed grant amount has come after two meetings with a bid negotiation committee formed by the state government over the past weeks.

The Vizhinjam terminal, planned as a container transshipment hub with a capacity to handle 4.1 million TEUs (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit) a year, will be built on the so-called landlord model, where the state government will set up the infrastructure and invite an operator to run the port. In addition, the port is also planning to invite tenders for the break water construction, for which international agency AECOM has been appointed as advisor.

The port is now awaiting completion of environment impact analysis (EIA), which is being conducted by a consortium of L&T-Ramboll and Asian Consulting Engineers. The EIA will assess the impact of a terminal on marine life and ecology, among others.

Since the bid was opened in February, the state government had formed an empowered committee led by the state chief secretary to evaluate the report submitted by project consultants, IFC, on the bid. After the report was submitted, the state government held discussions with the company to reconsider its demand. The Vizhinjam project has been delayed since 2004, when the government gave shape to the project and since then made two unsuccessful attempts to develop the port.

In 2006, a consortium of infrastructure firms led by Mumbai-based Zoom developers and three Chinese companies were picked by the state to develop the entire project, but was subsequently cancelled.

The delays have already pushed up the cost of the project by more than 60% because of escalating land and infrastructure costs.

The port is also looking to raise finance for the project. This includes the state government looking to raise 800 crore through a bond issue, while the developer Vizhinjam International has engaged SBI Caps to mop up 800 crore from leading financial institutions such as HUDCO and LIC.

Besides, a consortium led by State Bank of Travancore will bring in 300 while the state government has allowed a budgetary allocation of 250 crore.

"The team from Hudco will visit the project site and a final decision on financial infusion will be taken only after the EPC dredging contracts are cleared," said Suresh Babu.







http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/13128455.cms

[Tri Man]

A strategic failure

India declined Sri Lanka’s offer to build Hambantota Port, but China grabbed the opportunity. With strategic foresight, Beijing has stolen a march over New Delhi.


Minister for External Affairs SM Krishna is in Colombo on a four-day visit after more than a year to chivvy up reconstruction projects in the north. He will also be visiting Galle but not Hambantota. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in June 2010 that India would construct 50,000 houses for internally displaced persons. That project was cleared recently.

The Chinese were assigned the contract for construction of Hambantota Port in October 2007. The work began in January 2008 and the first phase was completed on time in November 2010. Hambantota is the hallmark of Chinese vision and efficiency. Hambantota is an exciting story made into a best-seller by the powerful Rajapaksa clan.

The plan for Hambantota Port was conceived 25 years ago by Sri Lanka Port Authority but nobody dared to take it up till Mr Rajapaksa included it in his ‘Mahinda Chintana’. The feasibility study was done by Canada and the first offer made to India which rejected it on two counts: Money and India’s dependence on Colombo Harbour. At present 80 per cent of India’s shipping is handled by Colombo and not till the new Cochin port is built will the dependence change. Colombo Harbour is being modernised with Chinese assistance to increase its annual capacity from 6,000 to 8,000 ships.

Hambantota is destined to become the prime port of call in Sri Lanka, surpassing Colombo. It is the world’s first in-built harbour carved out of land strategically located astride the busiest East-West shipping lanes poised to challenge the primacy of Singapore Port once fully developed in 2020.

It is being built by China with its aid, loan, technology and 400 engineers. The harbour is 16m deep — to be deepened to 17m by 2014 — and connected to sea via a channel with two breakwaters. At present it can accommodate four medium-sized general cargo ships with space for 18 ships but ultimately it will be able to accommodate 33 ships.

The Chinese have given $360 million and will provide $808 million in soft loan for the second phase of the project. Another $176 million has been provided for construction of LPG, aviation and bunkering tanks. A railway line, oil and gas pipelines, facilities for containers, transit warehouses, rest and crew change, and ship repair facilities are all in the works. A total of 18 tank farms were to be ready by December 2011.

The Chinese-aided $190 million Maththala International Airport will be ready to fly by end-2012. Four-lane highways, hotels and an industrial hub are to transform Hambantota, famous for salt flats and a hot and arid climate, into a bustling tourist and business centre.

The other ports competing with Hambantota are Gwadar, Salala (Oman), Chittagong and Penang. But as Hambantota lies astride shipping channels eight and nine, vessels will require only a five mile deviation to reach it. In his new book, Monsoon, Robert Kaplan describes the Indian Ocean region as the epicentre of the world and Sri Lanka with Hambantota at its centre, the future hub of the Indian Ocean Rim, gateway to Far East Asia and doorstep to South Asia.

Due to its nodal location, Hambantota by 2014 will handle 2,500 of 70,000 cargo ships annually; it will increase to 8,000 ships by 2020. Eighty per cent of China’s energy supply and 90 per cent trade plies along this route. With its first aircraft carrier likely to be operational this year and an expanding blue water Navy, China will require naval bunkering and berthing facilities along this route for its anti-piracy patrols and protection of its merchant vessels.

It is reported that Chinese vessels used Lankan naval ports for refuelling and replenishment en route to participating in naval exercises with Pakistan in 2007 and 2009 and for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa in 2008. They are known to have used Oman, Djibouti, Aden and Karachi also for logistics.

In 2010 the first phase of Hambantota was completed by China Harbour Engineering Company. Once the requisite depth of the harbour basin of 16m was achieved, it was connected to sea by a channel and a coffer dam was constructed. Soil is being dredged to construct an artificial island near the mouth of the channel.

Work on the second phase is in progress and will be completed by 2014. The harbour has been deepened to 17m. The road connecting Matara and the temple town of Katharagama has been re-routed. Although no container facility is available as yet, road and rail network is planned to connect the port with Maththala airport. A total of 23 countries, including India, have filed tenders to construct an industrial park.

The development of the Hambantota region is Mr Rajapaksa’s dream which seeks to make Sri Lanka the wonder of Asia by creating five multi-dimensional commercial hubs: Knowledge, energy and power, aviation, commercial and naval. The naval hub will augment existing ports and harbours in the north-east —Trincomalee, the world’s second largest natural harbour, Kankesanthurai and Point Pedro. The naval hubs contemplated are Colombo South Harbour, Hambantota Port, Olluvil Port and Galle Port. The last could turn out to be a new naval harbour.

The present plans for Hambantota are confined to making it into a sprawling commercial port to rival Singapore. Converting ports into naval bases costs billions of dollars, besides bringing in issues of sovereignty. Last year on a visit to Beijing, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister GL Peiris said that Hambantota would never become a military base.

China has no role in operating the port nor has the Sri Lankan Government considered privatisation. Mr Rajapaksa has said India need not fear China’s role in Sri Lanka, adding, “The Chinese will come and go; Indians will stay.” He elaborated on the 2500-year-old relations with India “but that does not mean that we will not get commercial benefits from others”.

Sri Lanka was quick to offer India a third consulate at Hambantota to quell fears of Chinese activities in the south. Hambantota is the fulcrum of Colombo’s desire to reposition itself as the Pearl of the old Silk Route. Still, who knows what will happen in 2025 when the fourth phase of Hambantota is completed — or even earlier. For example, a huge rock was encountered in the middle of the 210m wide channel. Mr Peiris is quick to remind whom it may concern: “Look what happened when President Junius Jayawardene tried to give Trincomalee to the US.”

Source :

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More strategic failure is failure of India to construct or develop Natural Deep Water Port at Vizhinjam.
China could realise this strategic potential and came to bid for much ignored Natural port of Vizhinjam.Only when they failed to get security clearance for Vizhinjam,did they approach Sri Lanka for Hambantota.

Hope government realises the potential of this port atleast now and act accodingly.

[Ajaypp]

Originally Posted by Tri Man

China could realise this strategic potential and came to bid for much ignored Natural port of Vizhinjam.Only when they failed to get security clearance for Vizhinjam,did they approach Sri Lanka for Hambantota.

Does anyone believe that the Chinese seriously wanted to build an addition to their "string of pearls" on Indian soil? Those companies came as contractors or were made to seem to be interested in the project by that acknowledged master of smoke-and-mirrors, Zoom Developers. So Hambantota was never a substitute for Vizhinjam.

The real risk is that Colombo, which transships the lion's share of Indian container traffic is in a country that looks dangerously like becoming another satellite of Beijing. Only Vizhinjam can offer a viable alternative, and it has become more a strategic need than an economic one to develop the port. India should ensure that Vizhinjam is commercially more attractive than Colombo and wean Indian traffic away from foreign ports like Colombo and Dubai.

[ak.army]

China's intention is to dominate the Indian ocean by getting into an alliance with Srilanka and engulf India also known as the 'string of pearls'.I donot know how strategically Vizhinjam is going to help in countering it.
It is just a transshipment hub which is going to have enough depth for mother ships and nearest to the international shipping route.Going to boost our economy when it comes into force.regarding strategic positioning i am not clear.

[Ajaypp]

Originally Posted by ak.army

China's intention is to dominate the Indian ocean by getting into an alliance with Srilanka and engulf India also known as the 'string of pearls'.I donot know how strategically Vizhinjam is going to help in countering it.
It is just a transshipment hub which is going to have enough depth for mother ships and nearest to the international shipping route.Going to boost our economy when it comes into force.regarding strategic positioning i am not clear.

Fortunately, it seems that the key decision makers with respect to India's defence are very clear about Vizhinjam's potential.

[RajeshVR]

This report shows how deep even the coast of Vizhinjam is.

[ak.army]

Originally Posted by Ajaypp

Fortunately, it seems that the key decision makers with respect to India's defence are very clear about Vizhinjam's potential.

Who are you referring to?It would be helpful if you can enlighten regarding the same.

[Ajaypp]

Originally Posted by RajeshVR

This report shows how deep even the coast of Vizhinjam is.

Lol, here's a paper which is complaining about natural draft and the proximity of shipping lanes which other ports in the country would give an arm and a leg for.

[Tri Man]

Originally Posted by ak.army

China's intention is to dominate the Indian ocean by getting into an alliance with Srilanka and engulf India also known as the 'string of pearls'.I donot know how strategically Vizhinjam is going to help in countering it.
It is just a transshipment hub which is going to have enough depth for mother ships and nearest to the international shipping route.Going to boost our economy when it comes into force.regarding strategic positioning i am not clear.

Please find the link below to understand the meaning of strategic location of Southern Tips ( be it India or SL).

Vizhinjam or Colachel has the same strategic location as Hambantota.

[ak.army]

Originally Posted by Tri Man

Please find the link below to understand the meaning of strategic location of Southern Tips ( be it India or SL).
www.iisc.ernet.in/prasthu/pages/PP_data/vasan.ppt

Vizhinjam or Colachel has the same strategic location as Hambantota.

thanks for the ppt by commodore Vasan (retd).well made ppt.
but the thing is Hambanthota is strategically imp for India becoz of china's presence.We are in a state of discomfort coz of the Dragon right beneath us.We made a blunder by rejectying Srilanks's offer at the first place.china grabbed it with both hands.There is no way Vizhinjam is going to be more strategically placed than a Tuticorin or cochin base.In fact A &N has to be further strengthened c oz its near to the east asian countries and much more strategically imp in terms of naval warfare.

And i am sorry but could not find vizhinjam mentioned in the ppt.

[Ajaypp]

Originally Posted by ak.army

but the thing is Hambanthota is strategically imp for India becoz of china's presence.

The Chinese presence is precisely why Vizhinjam, which lies closest to the international shipping lanes which are China's life-blood in terms of strategic commodities and trade, is so important to us.

Vizhinjam also offers the best option for India to maintain disruption free global logistics when its current primary transshipment hub, Colombo, is located in a nation which has significant geo-political risks as past and current events have shown. The Indian economy has significant ExIm exposure and needs to have a secure global logistics chain of which Vizhinjam, given its ability to accommodate even Triple-E container ships, is a very key element. More so than any other existing port.

There is no way Vizhinjam is going to be more strategically placed than a Tuticorin or cochin base.

Does the IN's blue water combat ships have an allergy to Vizhinjam that they would only enter the harbors at Tuticorin or Ernakulam? Given its draft and proximity not just to the shipping lanes, but to the Maledives, Seychelles and East Africa, Vizhinjam (and/or Colachel) would be ideal for deployment of a rapid response blue water force, especially in terms of the larger aircraft carriers, such as the INS Vikramaditya and the 65,000 ton class carriers that the Navy is planning to deploy.

And i am sorry but could not find vizhinjam mentioned in the ppt.

Perhaps, you can write to Comm. Vasan and ask him to do so in his forthcoming talks.

[Tri Man]

Originally Posted by ak.army

thanks for the ppt by commodore Vasan (retd).well made ppt.
but the thing is Hambanthota is strategically imp for India becoz of china's presence.We are in a state of discomfort coz of the Dragon right beneath us.We made a blunder by rejectying Srilanks's offer at the first place.china grabbed it with both hands.There is no way Vizhinjam is going to be more strategically placed than a Tuticorin or cochin base.In fact A &N has to be further strengthened c oz its near to the east asian countries and much more strategically imp in terms of naval warfare.

And i am sorry but could not find vizhinjam mentioned in the ppt.

Reply to this is posted in General Discussions thread.
Hope you are from army.
My request is Don't get biased for or against any city.
Try to see India as a single nation....One India,...My India

[BabuCS]

Originally Posted by ak.army

thanks for the ppt by commodore Vasan (retd).well made ppt.


And i am sorry but could not find vizhinjam mentioned in the ppt.

One need not be a naval strategist to understand the importance of Vizhinjam, it is pure common sense. If you have any doubt, approach any second grader with a map of the southern coastline with places like Colombo, Kochi, Vizhinjam, malaca shipping route, Chinese lifeline etc marked clearly on it. Ppt files are sometimes misleading!!

[Tri Man]

Originally Posted by BabuCS

One need not be a naval strategist to understand the importance of Vizhinjam, it is pure common sense. If you have any doubt, approach any second grader with a map of the southern coastline with places like Colombo, Kochi, Vizhinjam, malaca shipping route, Chinese lifeline etc marked clearly on it. Ppt files are sometimes misleading!!

The ppt file is not about any Indian port.It is about the failure of our country to grab the strategic port in SL.But both these ports have strategic location that they can easily command Arabian Sea,Bay of bengal and Indian ocean routes easily.
Please go through the links 1,2 and 3 mentioned in my post 2004.

I am deleting the link of the ppt for some reasons.

[rejithcvcv]

A team of officials from Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) visited the site proposed for the Vizhinjam International Seaport near here on Thursday, preparatory to submitting a proposal before the company's board for supporting the project with an assistance of Rs.500 crore.

The team, comprising R. K. Singh from the company's Project Division, Lalit Singla from Finance Division and Thiruvananthapuram chief V. Thirumavalavan, also had discussions with top functionaries of Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL), the government undertaking constituted to execute the ambitious project of the State Government.

HUDCO officials said the final decision on the Rs.500-crore lending to VISL would be taken at the company's board meeting later this month. VISL would be developing the basic infrastructure of the port, conceived along the landlord model. In addition to Rs.500 crore from HUDCO, VISL is looking for Rs.300 crore from the Life Insurance Corporation of India. VISL had already discussed the matter with the LIC.

VISL is also approaching a consortium of banks, led by State Bank of Travancore, for mobilising a further amount of Rs.300 crore for the project. Moves are also afoot to raise a sum of Rs.800 crore through government bonds, VISL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer A. S. Suresh Babu said.

Mr. Suresh Babu said VISL was moving matters in such a way as to ensure the mobilisation of the entire finance by July.





http://www.thehindu.com/business/com...cle3429427.ece

[ajithv]

Source: Malayala Manorama

[ajithv]

Source: Metro Manorama

[ajithv]

Source: Mathrubhumi