VISL allays concerns of tourism sector

Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL) has urged the tourism sector to refrain from arriving at ‘preset’ conclusions with regards to the Vizhinjam seaport project as they could delay the project.

VISL officials, in a statement here, said that the detailed project report and the environmental impact assessment report will be published soon, in which the concerns will be addressed.

 The VISL statement has come in response to a resolution passed by the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA) which said that the multi-crore project will spell doom for the two-decade-old tourism on the Kovalam-Vizhinjam-Poovar belt. The concerns now raised are ‘’premature relying on some preliminary study reports,’’ VISL CEO A S Suresh Babu said.

 As per guidelines and terms of reference issued by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, (MoEF), a one year, all season data collection for a Comprehensive Environmental and Social impact Assessment (ESIA) for the project has been completed. This was done through Asian Consulting Engineers (India) Ltd and L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers India Ltd, in association with the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Vizhinjam, and Indian National Centre for Ocean information Services (iNCOIS), Hyderabad.

 The data collected pertains to sectors including fisheries, tourism, social, environment, shoreline morphology, ocean dynamics, marine modelling etc, as required by the MoEF, according to the VISL. Over a dozen group-level public interactions and discussions and house-to-house social surveys from more than 6,000 households/stakeholders were performed.

 ‘’The data analysis is being performed to arrive at definitive decisions leading to the drafting of ESIA report which, along with the data on detailed topographic survey, will go as input for optimisation of Integrated Port Master Plan incorporating all environmental & social concerns into engineering requirements,’’ Suresh Babu said.

 Based on the ESIA report and Integrated Port Master Plan and other study reports like marine geophysical and geotechnical surveys, mathematical modelling studies, shore line change studies etc, a Detailed Project Report (DPR) will be prepared, VISL said.