The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : No land acquisition for Vizhinjam terminal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

No land acquisition for Vizhinjam terminal

Staff Reporter

Land will be acquired only for road and rail links, says Minister for Ports

RITES conducting study for rail connectivity
Small ports to be developed

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has no plans now to acquire land for the proposed International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) to be set up at Vizhinjam, Minister for Ports M. Vijayakumar has said.

Replying to a question in the Assembly on Monday, the Minister said the land for the ICTT would be found by reclaiming land from the sea. Land had to be acquired for the connecting road from the Kazhakkuttam-Inchivila NH 47 by-pass and for the rail link from the Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil line.

The Minister said reports on the rail and road connectivity to the ICTT were under preparation. RITES, a subsidiary of the Railways, was carrying out the feasibility study for rail connectivity. The small ports at Vizhinjam, Thangaserri, Alappuzha, Ponnani, Beypore and Azhikkal were being developed by the government. The government was considering seeking the assistance of the private sector in the development of the ports at Thangaserri, Alappuzha and Ponnani, he added.

DPT/DT vaccine

Minister for Health and Social Welfare P.K. Sreemathy said that the shortage of DPT (for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough) and DT (for diphtheria and tetanus) vaccines in the State would be solved as the Centre had promised to supply them by the end of July. While the State needed 32 lakh DPT and 7.5 lakh DT vaccines annually, the Centre had supplied only 11.5 lakh DPT and 6 lakh vaccines in 2007-08.

As many as seven cases of diphtheria had been reported recently in the State. The supply of DPT and DT vaccines had been stopped temporarily by the Centre since January 15, the Minister said.

As many as 244 panchayats in the State do not have any Ayurveda institutions. Steps would be taken to commence Ayurveda dispensaries using funds from the National Rural Health Mission. A Regional Institute of Paramedical Sciences would be set up on the premises of the Kozhikode Medical College. The State Disease Control and Monitoring Cell had been asked to provide all assistance in setting up the National Virology Institute in Alappuzha.

Ms. Sreemathy said that the Social Welfare Department would look into the complaints against the Janaseva Sisubhavan functioning in Ernakulam. Welfare committees and District Monitoring Committees had been set up to check illegal activities in the orphanages.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section