Just days after announcing a seafood park and an area development plan in connection with the Vizhinjam seaport, the Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL) has been forced to go on the defensive following reports of an alleged land transaction with state agency KINFRA.
VISL officials on Sunday issued a statement denying the reports and pointed out that it had no plans whatsoever of acquiring populated areas afresh for the multi-crore seaport project. Neither has the recently-held VISL board meeting taken any decision in this regard, VISL CEO A S Suresh Babu said.
‘’What the board meeting did was only to approve the inclusion of proposals for seafood park and port city area development plan in the report on the Environment Impact Assessment. No decision has been taken on the location of the proposed seafood park, which requires only four hectares of land,’’ Suresh Babu said.
VISL had, in fact, dreamed up this project to woo the fishing community by promising new job opportunities in the region once the port comes up. The proposal for port city area development, likewise, does not envisage fresh land acquisition.
Neither does it include the land currently acquired for the project, he said. The idea is to compile various development plans prepared by various agencies and submit an integrated plan to the government.
The recommendation is to develop a port city development plan within 15 km of the project site and submit it to the government.
This is merely a follow-up on announcements made by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy earlier, according to VISL officials.
Comments
0 comment