: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan were engaged in a verbal battle over the Vizhinjam international seaport project on the eve of the Aruvikkara Assembly by-election with the Chief Minister accusing Mr. Achuthanandan of having entered into a deal to scuttle the project and the latter terming the allegation an election stunt.
In a statement here on Friday, Mr. Chandy said the Opposition leader’s criticism of the project even after all the information about the project had been made available to the Opposition and published on the website caused serious concern.
Mr. Achuthanandan has been repeating the charge that the State government would get only one per cent of the revenue from the port for the first 60 years.
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There was no such provision in the tender norms. As such, Mr. Achuthanandan should clarify from where he had got this information.
e-tender norms
Under the revised e-tender norms, the agency executing the project should pay 10 per cent of the revenue to the government from the seventh year onwards.
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Moreover, beginning the 15{+t}{+h}year, the company agency concerned should pass on to the government 1 per cent and increase the State’s share by 1 per cent every year. This would result in the government getting 21 per cent of the revenue in the 40{+t}{+h}year.
This would be in addition to the government’s share from non-port activities, Mr. Chandy pointed out.
The Chief Minister said the terms of the tender prepared by the last Left Democratic Front (LDF) government would have left the government with zero revenue for 30 years even after bearing the cost of most of the construction activities.
It would have forced the government to give the port on lease on completion of the 30{+t}{+h}year.
Tender norms on website
It was for the people to decide whether this model was better than the new tender norms that assured the government revenue from the 7{+t}{+h}year. Anybody could compare the two tender norms on the website of the seaport company.
The government had decided to go ahead with the project after re-tendering the project three times. If the present opportunity was lost, it would mean loss of the Vizhinjam project. The Opposition leader’s attempt was to scuttle the project with such allegations, he said.
Spat comes on the eve of Aruvikkara by-election
Go-ahead for project after re-tendering three times
Chandy accuses VS
of trying to scuttle project