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Media
The Kollam Cargo Port will be formally commissioned at 4 p.m. on October 19 by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan. The decision in this connection was taken at a high-level meeting held at the District Panchayat Complex here on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Ports M. Vijayakumar, Minister for Labour P.K. Gurudasan, and Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran.
A decision has also been taken to have a meeting between the exporters of the State and Mr. Vijayakumar in the State capital on Wednesday to find out a way for bringing a ship to the Kollam Cargo Port for the inaugural function. Earlier, it was decided to bring a ship from Myanmar for the inauguration. But political developments in that country have ruled it out.
Policy on ports
Inaugurating the meeting Mr. Vijayakumar said that the Government intends coming out with a policy on sea port. He said that the policy is with the aim of making Kerala a sea port State. There are already 17 sea ports in the State. Six of them are being given priority for development and the Kollam port in one among them.
The State had submitted to the Centre a development proposal of Rs.12.8 crore for the Kollam port; Rs.5 crore from that has been allocated. From the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project, an allocation of Rs.8.2 crore has been made for the port. Construction of additional infrastructure facilities such as roads will be met through this allocation. The Ports Department of the State has also made an allocation of Rs.1.7crore for the development of the Kollam port.
Mr. Gurudasan said that so far Rs.44 crore have been spent for the construction of the Kollam Cargo Port. The meeting also constituted a comprehensive reception committee to make the inaugural function a grand event. The reception committee will have the five ministers from Kollam district as patrons. They are N.K. Premachandran, Mullakara Ratnakaran, C. Divakaran, M.A. Baby and Mr. Gurudasan. Kollam MP P. Rajendran is the chairman of the committee.
Source:The Hindu
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