Out of the 40,000K, only 650K is for the capital city. Means, < 2% of the proposed investment is for capital. Very very pathetic. This can happen only in Kerala.:badnews:
Healthier competition between cities is good. But politics and lobbying are very rude.
Initially, somebody pointed out that the capital city got the maximum number of projects listed in the EK website. Now what happened???
Capital city's share is very negligible. We all expected that things will happen in this way only.
The main beneficiary is Ernakulam district, which is the favourite place of the ministry itself. Around 70% of the investment is for ernakulam district alone.
Kozhikkode & malappuram districts come next.
It is unbelievable to hear that the IT capital doesn't get a single investment proposal in the IT sector.
We all know that the Technopark Phase II & Technocity are big projects.
As an established IT capital, investors surely know about the advantages of Trivandrum. So if there are no proposals for TVM, it means that these projects were not at all showcased in EK or the government didn't highlight them enough.
So there is surely a joint effort to sabotage the projects or place them in cold storage for some period of time. When some one asks about them, govt. can say that land acquisition is delayed due to local protests.
So things become much more clearer on how the capital city is being sidelined.
Next heavy blow is that the much awaited and prospective Vizhinjam container transshipment terminal was no where in the scene.
From the example of Ernakulam district and other surrounding districts, it is clearly evident that a port is inevitable for the development of a region.
By means of port, import of raw materials and export of final products can be done. Once a container terminal becomes operational, ancillary industries will surely come. This will not only benefit trivandrum, but the surrounding districts also.
If Vizhinjam project was already completed, I am sure that Trivandrum could have get much more investments than the present.
So everybody understood that if the port doesn't materialise, the development of the city will be staggered. That is why there were so many controversies and delays in materializing the project. There are sabotaging from local as well as global players.
How foolish can a person be, in order to think like, "Vizhinjam cannot be considered as a major port" (whereas a port like Azheekkal can be).
Most of the major ports including Kochi are build by heavy dredging.
Vizhinjam has the natural depth more than enough for a new generation container/cruise ship. Also, the place is nearer to the international shipping route. Investor has a great cost saving in the dredging and considering the projected traffic, it would be profitable for the developer as well as the company that is going to run the operations. Also, government will get a huge share of the income and profits as government will be having a major share in the project. In spite of all these advantages, the project has not become fruitful and no body has evinced interest in the same. This is something hard to digest.:dunno:
Poovar shipyard and ship repairing facility by CSL also went to freezer. At the same time, CSL declared a ship repairing facility in Kochi.
Now CSL is a Mini-Ratna company. Currently they are planning to go for Navaratna status. For that one of the criteria is that, it should have facilities spread across places. So in order to do that, they planned for a facility @ Vizhinjam/Poovar. I don't know why they backed out.
According to government, EK is a huge success. But the capital city is a huge loser. It got a big ZERO.
