Minister Vasan keeping away from Chennai Port?

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on August 10, 2010:

CHENNAI: More than 14 months have passed since G K Vasan became Union Minister for Shipping in the present UPA government at the Centre, but the Congress MP from Tamil Nadu has “never once visited” the Chennai Port which is expediting important developmental projects in its 130th year of operations.

The “lackadaisical” attitude, which contrasts with the conduct of his predecessor T R Baalu, might end up in the port losing its status as a ‘Gateway of South India’ in coming years, caution exim traders.

Vasan’s “failure” in pressuring top officials of his Shipping Ministry and other pertinent departments for speeding up projects related to the Chennai Port was “seriously affecting” the fate of numerous endeavours worth over Rs 6,000 crore, they lament.

According to sources, the minister’s “lack of interest” in expediting projects like the Rs 2,200-crore two-road connectivity for free movement of container and heavy lorries, the Rs 300-crore dry port at Sriperumbudur and its ambitious Rs 3,700-crore mega-container terminal could reflect on the overall development of the historical port which faces serious competition from two fast-emerging ports not far from it: Ennore and Krishnapatnam.

While the promised Ennore-Manali Road Improvement Project in North Chennai to reduce lorry traffic was recently cancelled, the Chennai Port suffered another jolt last month when SIPCOT, citing red tape, informed its inability to hand over the promised 125-acre land at Sriperumbudur for setting up an integrated dry port.

Port Trust officials all along maintain that the mega-container terminal project is “progressing well”, but the endeavour seems to be once again caught in a bureaucratic tangle at the Shipping Ministry.

In fact, sources say, nothing has progressed after the technical bids stage in March last year.

The sources recalled how Baalu, as Cabinet minister for Shipping in the previous Manmohan Singh dispensation (2004-09), who used to visit Chennai Port “quite often” and enquire about the day-to-day affairs for its sustained development. Vasan, after succeding him in May 2009, has “not paid even a courtesy visit” to the port premises to understand its prevailing conditions, sources said.

What’s more, Vasan has “failed to nominate” eight new trustees for the recently reconstituted Chennai Port Trust under other interests category (normally used for political appointments) for more than four months now.

The board, which was reconstituted for two years (April 2010- March 2012), met this June without the mandatory presence of two Labour representatives and eight members from other interests category.