THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: M V Raghavan, the Communist leader and former minister, died on Sunday with a dream unfulfilled - that of seeing Vizhinjam grow into a major seaport. It was during his tenure as Ports Minister that global tenders were first floated for this project. But long before all that, as early as 1991, Raghavan had begun the groundwork - creating the required awareness among the people and the media, both in Thiruvananthapuram and outside it.
At press conferences in places like Kochi or further north, Raghavan would wax lyrical about the project. He was also one of the few leaders of those days who actually visited Vizhinjam and spoke to the residents about the port and its possibilities. ‘’He was quite vocal about Vizhinjam at a time when there was no such movement as you see today to make it a reality,’’ recalls Sugunan, party colleague and CMP politburo member. ‘’He was very actively involved in the project. We had organised a meeting in Vizhinjam in 2004 where he came and spoke,’’ remembers Elias John, who now heads the Vizhinjam Motherport Action Council (V-Mac).
The first attempt to find a private player for the project was made when a Hyderabad-based firm signed a deal with the government. But that proposal did not work out. Later, during Raghavan’s tenure as Ports Minister, global tenders were floated for the first time. In fact, that was the first attempt at making this port a reality. The govt accepted two bids, one from Gammon India Ltd and second from a consortium made up of Indian firm Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd and Chinese firms China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and Kaidi Electric Power Company. Though the consortium won the deal, the Centre declined security clearance to the Chinese firms forcing the State Govt back to square one. Since then, the govt has had to float global tenders four more times for this project, the latest one in last December.