Adani fails to keep Sep 1 date with Vizhinjam port
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 1 : Private multi-port operator Gautam Adani failed to keep his September 1 promise of berthing the first ship from the Vizhinjam Port, near here, on Saturday. A tremendous ammount of work still remains.
Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd (AVPPL) had on December 5, 2015 targeted September 1, 2018 to finish the first phase of the Kerala port.
Adani had said it would be operational in 1,000 days, which was Saturday.
The then Oommen Chandy government had inked the 2015 agreement for the international multi-purpose deepwater seaport project at a cost of Rs 7,525 crores. Adani Ports, which was the lone bidder had sought a Rs 1,635 crore grant for this.
Vizhinjam Mother Port Action Committee member Elias John said: "What has happened is the interest shown by the Chandy government is absent with the present government.
"If the things continue to proceed like this, they will be unable to even meet the 1,425 days deadline."
The delay is being attributed to a serious shortage of limestone required for building the breakwaters. Then there was Cyclone Ockhi which landed a huge beating in 2017 and took away 150 metres of the constructed breakwater.
According to the agreement, Adani would operate the port for 40 years, extendable by 20 more years, while the state government would get a portion of the revenue from the port after 15 years.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
