An all-party delegation from Kerala will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek the centre's clearance for the proposed Vizhinjam international trans-shipment terminal. The delegation is scheduled to go to New Delhi between August 29 and September 2.A meeting attended by representatives of all major political parties in the state here today adopted a resolution stressing the need for the trans-shipment terminal at Vizhinjam. There has been widespread criticism that some vested interests worked behind the scenes to ensure that the project did not get security clearance from the centre. The meeting, attended by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy, resolved to make every effort to get clearance for the project. All political parties decided to stand united in ensuring the execution of the project. The long-pending project ran into trouble recently when the Centre expressed its reluctance to clear the project citing security reasons. The sate government received a communication from the union ministry of shipping rejecting the state government's proposal to involve a consortium consisting of two Chinese firms and a Mumbai-based company in the construction of the project. Though the exact reason for refusal of clearance was not cited, the Chinese participation in the project implementation is said to be the reason for the centre's reluctance to grant security clearance.
