THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The former Minister and CPI(M) State committee member M. Vijayakumar said here on Thursday that political manoeuvring would pose a hurdle to implementation of the Vizhinjam international container transhipment terminal project.

Addressing a press conference here, the former Minister said the State government had submitted an application to the Centre in October 2010 for environmental clearance for the project.

The expert appraisal committee that examined the application on January 19 this year had rejected the request of the State stating that the proposed project was close to Vallarpadam, Kolachel, Chennai and Tuticorin.

Mr. Vijayakumar, who was in charge of Ports in the former Left Democratic Front (LDF) Ministry, said the State had resubmitted the request in March this year.

The expert appraisal committee, which met on April 26, again rejected the request stating that the project site was close to the Vizhinjam harbour and that a study needed to be carried out on how it would affect the fish wealth and the fishing community. “The suggestions of the representative of the Vallarpadam terminal were included and it was against Vizhinjam.”

The former Minister said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy met Union Forest and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on May 31 and submitted a memorandum. He alleged that the request that was rejected was taken away from the Resident Commissioner of Kerala in Delhi and approved by the committee on May 31. “This is political manoeuvring as the Centre delayed clearance for political gains. The State had lost five months and now the environment study would need another one year,” he added.

Mr. Vijayakumar alleged that there was an international conspiracy and a lobby involving the Singapore, Dubai and Colombo ports behind delaying the commencement of the Vizhinjam project out of fear that container traffic would be affected. The previous LDF regime had cleared the obstacles to land acquisition by identifying 120 hectares of land for the project. The UDF government should have convened an all-party meeting as done by the LDF before going ahead with the project, he added.