CHENNAI: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Tamilnadu local leadership has petitioned the state leadership of the party against the new transhipment port to be commissioned at Kanyakumari in a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

The transhipment port, according to the project, will be a Greenfield port and a container shipment hub. An Expression of interest (EoI) has been invited from the port builders by the public sector VO Chidambaranar Port to build the 6.5 million TEU capacity transhipment port. The port will be managed by Kanyakumari port, a special purpose vehicle floated jointly by VO Chidambaranar Port, Cochin Port Trust and Chennai Port Trust. However, the local fishermen community is against the project.

A. Devasahayam, a leader of the fishermen folk, told IANS, "We will not allow such a port here. There is one port at Kulachil and the Vizhinjam port is just 64 km away. What is the need for this new port? It will lead to high tides and loss of fish wealth, which will affect our lives. We are totally opposed to this project." There are already two fishing harbours at Kanyakumari -- the Chinnamuttam fishing harbour and the Muttam fishing harbour -- and a new port with huge transhipment movement is causing fear among the fishermen community. There were protests when the Central government had earlier proposed the project.

The New Delhi representative of the Tamil Nadu government, Dalavai Sundaram, protested against the new port at Kanyakumari while the local AIADMK leadership is totally against the project.

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