VS launches protest over Vizhinjam project

Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition and CPM veteran V S Achuthanandan on Sunday launched another round of criticism against the Congress-led state government over alleged corruption involved in the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Project, on the eve of the project’s formal launch.

The CPM-led Opposition Left Democratic Front will boycott signing of the concession agreement between the government and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) on Monday.

“The agreement has been worked out in such a manner that the Adani group will pocket crores of rupees as profit from land handed over to them, even before the project takes off. The seaport is secondary, this is a real estate project,” Achuthanandan said. The Opposition parties maintain that promoters of the project stand to gain an undue advantage because the state is handing over to them land worth Rs 5,000 crore. The project in its first phase comes at an estimated cost of Rs 7,525 crore.

Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, is scheduled to be in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday for signing of the concession agreement.