The Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL), the special vehicle purpose formed by the State Government for the development of the international transhipment container terminal here, has signed three memoranda of agreements with stakeholder agencies for taking the project forward.
The scope of the agreements signed here on Monday mainly pertained to providing financial and infrastructure support.
Project fianances
The first MoU was signed with State Bank of Travancore (SBT) for sourcing long-term finance of Rs 2,500 crore to be raised by a consortium of banks and financial institutions.
These funds would be transferred to the VISL once the bidding process for awarding the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract gets over.
The tenure of the loan has been fixed tentatively at 15 years, which will be finalised in consultation with the company at a later stage.
The new Managing Director of VISL, Mr Manoj Joshi, and the Managing Director of SBT, Mr P. Pradeep Kumar, signed the agreement on behalf of the two parties in the presence of the Chief Minister, Mr V. S. Achuthanandan, and the Ports Minister, Mr V. Surendran Pillai, and other Ministers.
Power transmission
The second MoU was signed with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) for drawing transmission lines and setting up electrical installations for supplying 5 MW of power to the project area during the construction phase and scaling it up to 35 MW and 75 MW as the port operations go on stream.
Preliminary estimated cost for the two stages of work is Rs 4.3 crore and Rs 36.93 crore. The MoU was signed by Mr Manoj Joshi and the KSEB Chairman, Mr V. P. Joy.
The third pertained to the provision of a rail link to the project area, signed by Mr Joshi and Mr Mukul Jain, Director (Operations), Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Fugro Geotech, a Mumbai-based player, has started with the work of marine geotechnical investigation and geophysical survey off the project site.
Fugro has deployed a hydraulically self-elevating jack-up platform, among other equipment, at the site.
The work is expected to cost Rs 1.61 crore, sources in the Government said.