Kerala Corner

[takeiteasy]

pakistankaarude idakku oru thekkan malayali pettu poyaal enganeyirikkum? ee video kaanuka:

 

[Roby]

santhosh pandit ' nte padam varunnu.
beware.

 

[Mech]

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[Mech]

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[Roybot]

Enna ondu vishesham?

 

[Mech]

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[Mech]

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[Mech]

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[venu309]

Enna ondu vishesham?

Nalla vishesham...

Anyway where did you learn that?

 

[Mech]

 

[Mech]

 

[Mech]

[/CENTER]

 

[Roybot]

Nalla vishesham...

Anyway where did you learn that?

I have a few malyalee family friends. I hear them say that a lot. Not sure what it means though. Something along the lines of "whats new?", "whats special?".

 

[venu309]

I have a few malyalee family friends. I hear them say that a lot. Not sure what it means though. Something along the lines of "whats new?", "whats special?".

Yes it literally means 'what's the news', but we use it to say 'how do you do'.

 

[SpArK]

Trivandrum Rising - The city tomorrow and how it develops.


The bid process for the $ 2 Billion Vizhinam deep-water port project in Trivandrum is nearing its close. The project's nodal agency, VISL, recently released key project reports which have many areas of concern from the perspective of any proponent of Vizhinjam. Some of the most glaring issues are discussed in the article, together with suggestions how the reports could have been made better and some longer-term proposals for the development of this mega-project!


Perhaps you may not have noticed it in the continuing avalanche of temple treasure, Team Anna and the threat of another global meltdown, but the last few days have seen Kerala's largest ever infrastructure project take two key steps forward. The first, of course, is the submission of bids by two entities, one being the Adani Group's Mundra Port and the other a consortium of the $ 3 Billion Indian conglomerate Welspun and Australian construction giant Leighton. One of these firms will now be selected as the master operator of the port (subject to them meeting all the tender guidelines) and potential as the EPC (Engineering Procurement Construction) contractor for Phase I. The second piece of news is that the agency entrusted with the development of the $ 2 Billion deep water port project, Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited, finally launched a decent website, albeit long AFTER the tender process was completed.

Excellent news, one should say, considering the travails that this landmark project has been through in the recent past (not to forget a small 60 year implementation delay!). The fact that the Adani Group has submitted a bid is possibly the most significant as their Mundra Port is already the biggest private port in India and is poised to become the nation's busiest port in the next 3 - 4 years. The Adani's also have a 4000 MW coal-fired power station in development in addition to the Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) being built by the Tata group at Mundra, and are the largest coal importers in India. The Group recently acquired the Abbot Point Coal Terminal in Australia for the trifling sum of $ 2 Billion. Mundra already has two container terminals, one operated by the Adani Group itself and the other by DP World, together handling well in excess of 1.5 Million TEUs a year and with a combined capacity approaching 3 Million TEU. One hopes that the Adani Group might have ambitions in both containers and coal at India's deepest port, Vizhinjam being even deeper and better located than Mundra. The second consortium seems to be more focused on the construction aspect of the project which could be worth over Rs 2000 Crores in Phase One alone, and would bring in a specialist port/terminal operator if awarded the tender (unless they already have one already onboard).



Now, given the fact that about a third of all the world's shipping traffic passes by just ten nautical miles or less from Vizhinjam, on the Suez/Gulf - Malacca route, one would be forgiven for thinking that a world-class ship repair/building yard would be an attractive proposition at Vizhinjam. In fact, there have been a lot of noise made in the recent past about a Central Government initiative for a shipyard at Poovar and for the public-sector Cochin Shipyard Limited to set up a world-class yard, for the first time, at Vizhinjam.

A "clean and green" port......Huh?

The Preliminary Project Report for the Vizhinjam deep-water port has been prepared by Royal Haskoning and it must be said that they have done a fine job, at least as far as the technical aspects of port design are concerned. That said, there are a few surprises in there as well. After an exhaustive review of the site conditions the report comes up with a set of vision key words for the project, based on the Drewery report

Green and Clean
Efficient
Competitive
Attractive for Tourism
"God's Own Port"

One is left wondering whether this is the project report of a $ 2 Billion deep-water port or a tourist resort! I am an environmentalist at heart and I love words like "green and clean", but that has different connotations in different contexts, a clean port is not the same as a clean operating theater, is it? We don't want a dirty, polluting port at Vizhinjam but we certainly do want a viable one!