‘Lok Sabha membership cancelled for criticizing Adani’: Rahul Gandhi blames Adani for farmers’ plight
Junior external affairs minister V Muraleedharan, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leader of opposition VD Satheesan, many state ministers, and politicians attended the event organised by the Left Front government to welcome the ship.Tugboats gave a water salute and pushed the vessel carrying huge cranes from the wharf to the docking yard.
Both the CPM-led Left Front and the opposition UDF led by Congress claimed credit for the Vizhinjam seaport project, leading to a verbal duel. However, the arrival of the vessel was celebrated with cheers, fireworks, and balloons, temporarily setting aside the controversies surrounding the project that is set to be one of the world’s largest ports when commissioned next year. The project’s construction began in 2015.
Congress leader VD Satheesan credited the late former CM Oommen Chandy for making the project possible, while accusing Vijayan of not having the right to boast about it. “Pinarayi was the party secretary back then and alleged a corruption of Rs 6,000 crore when the total cost of the project was Rs 5,000 crore. He had also alleged a real estate scam against the UDF government. Now the same Pinarayi is taking credit,” he said.
In response, CPM state secretary MV Govindan dismissed Congress’s claims and mentioned that former Left Front CM EK Nayanar envisioned the port 30 years ago, with VS Achuthanandan taking it forward. Kerala finance minister KN Balagopal alleged that it was Congress leader A K Antony who had stood in the way of giving security clearance to the project when he was defence minister. CM Vijayan expressed his enthusiasm, anticipating the significant development that will follow its commissioning.
“The developments will be beyond our imagination and we must have a favourable and strong attitude to achieve that,” he said. He praised the port’s potential and container trans-shipment (transferring cargo from one ship to another) capabilities, anticipating it would surpass even Singapore. “Now that the first vessel has berthed, I would like to announce that we are keen to commence Phase II of this project…We expect the port project to generate employment for more than 5,500, people through direct and indirect jobs,” said Adani Ports CEO Karan Adani.