Only one particular Chinese company was disqualified for bidding Nation needs port capacity to meet its GDP growth

There is no hurdle to building the Vizhinjam Port. The port has to come because the whole of India would need additional port capacity to meet the growth in GDP, said Union Minister for Shipping T.R. Baalu here on Friday.

The Minister was delivering the presidential address at a function organised for the inauguration of the work on the road and rail links to the site of the proposed International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) project on Vallarpadam Island.

The Minister said the country was growing rapidly and that predictions had put India outstripping the growth of Japan and China. The growth in port capacities would be a crucial element.

Mr. Baalu said that only a particular company was disqualified for bidding for the Vizhinjam project and that other Chinese companies could bid for the project. The security aspect should be looked into from the point of view of the entire country.

He said that the Central and State Governments should work together to see to the development of the ports and that there was no room for complacency. The Centre planned to invest $ 60 billion in the Port and Road sectors in the country by 2011.

The road projects for the country in the near future included 11,130 km of four-laning in areas that were of tourist and religious importance.

There were proposals to build 20,000 km of two-lane roads and 6,5000 km of six-lane roads. Another 1,000 km of expressway was also planned, said the Minister.

In the North East alone there would be an investment of Rs.7,500 crore in building 6,500 km of roads, he said.

The 12 major ports in the country had a combined capacity of 456 million tonnes while the 187 minor ports had a capacity of 144 million tonnes.

But these needed to be increased substantially in the near future. The ports handled a total of 566 million tonnes last year. By 2009, the capacity of the ports must go up to 1,000 million tonnes.

The Minister also said that the port at Azheekkal could also be developed.

He said the Government of Kerala had announced its intention to exclude the operation of bunker sales from the purview of State Sale Tax.

He appealed to the Government to make an early notification of this proposal that was supportive of the bunkering terminal project.

Source - The Hindu 10-02-07