Thiruvananthapuram: The new CEO of Adani Vizhinjam project, Mr Rajesh Jha, has the tough task of finishing the first phase before the deadline of December 2019. He is likely to take charge within two weeks in place of Mr Santosh Kumar Mohapatra who resigned on Friday. The Adani Group, which had entered into a concession agreement with the state on the Vizhinjam project on August 17, 2015, had promised to complete the project within 1,000 days of the commencement of the work.
The construction was inaugurated on December 5 the same year. The first phase involved building a berth length of 800 metres and a container yard of 131 acres. Though Mr Mohapatra claimed personal reasons for the resignation, sources said that the slow pace of construction was a major one.
Adani Group would have to make up for lost time this year if they have to meet the deadline. Last year, the company lost valuable mandays due to a local protest allegedly over the damage caused to houses because of drilling near the coast and the Ockhi cyclone. In 2018, work is expected to be speeded up. The company would have to address the problems faced in the procurement of rocks for the breakwater. Of the 72 lakh tonnes of rock required, it planned to procure 36 tonnes from Kanyakumari district and 22 tonnes from Kollam and the rest from various quarries in Thiruvananthapuram district, sources said.
As the nearest quarry was estimated to be approximately 50 km from the project site, there was also a need to improve the approach roads from the quarries to enable free movement of lorries to the barge loading site. The rocks then have to be transported by sea via self-propelled barges. Transporting massive quantity of rocks along narrow roads through densely populated areas was a major challenge, sources said.
