Penalty: Adani Group to contest charge
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Adani Group has decided to contest the fine imposed on it by the state government for allegedly not adhering to the contractual deadline for the Vizhinjam port project.
‘’We will contest it. There is a lack of understanding on their part. We will be clarifying our position in a letter soon,’’ a senior officer of the group said on Sunday. The Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL), the state government company overseeing the project, had slapped a penalty of `18.96 crore on the grounds that the company had failed to spend 25 pc of the project cost of `4,216 crore within the first 690 days which ended in October last year.
According to the government, the Ahmedabad-based group spent only 21.75 per cent of the project cost, following which the government penalised it at the rate of `12 lakh per day. However, officers with the Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd said they had already taken issued letters of credit for purchasing equipment including cranes for the project, which should be seen as part of the expenditure. However, the government has not included it in its assessment, a senior officer said.