Khadi Uniform A Day

The Govt of Kerala is proposing to introduce Wear Khadi Uniform a Day in schools

If the move is to promote the Swadeshi ethos, it would be just another fiasco. There is no point in trying to force the youngest generation with patriotism. As times change, we see poeple having different and controversial views on Gandhian principles. Gandhiji being The Father of the Nation doesn't bind any of us to accept his way of life or his take on the country.

Otherwise these are two sides of it.

1) The dying Khadi Board would find a much needed boost as the demand will increase by 10 to 30 million metres.

2) I think the cloth is much more suited for the Kerala climate.

The problems in implementation are, as I see them:-

1) Khadi is no more a symbol of self reliance. It is way more expensive than the other form of clothes, which would make it a costly proposition for parents especially those who depend on cheaper Govt Schools.

2) Khadi board doesn't really have the resources (people & funds) to meet the demand.

If the Khadi board is able to rope in some sponsors or if the Govt can subsidise the program for some initial years, it can work well.

Vizhinjam & Vallarpadam -II

This is sent by my brother. He has collected the info and written this.

Vizhinjam port, a Tuglak plan?

It has been a point of argument that whether Vizhinjam should be boosted as a location to build an international container terminal rather than building one at Kochi. Both Kochi and Vizhinjam has their own advantages. Vizhinjam is suited naturally to be developed as a port. To be precise, Vizhinjam is a port that was constructed by the nature itself.

Vizhinjam port is located 16 km south of Trivandrum.

The site offers the following unique advantages:
• Proximity to international shipping route and East-West shipping axis

• Availability of 20m contour within a nautical mile off the coast. Minimal littoral drift along the coast and therefore hardly any maintenance dredging

• Immediacy to national/regional road, rail network

• Flexibility in design and expansion being Greenfield project Close to Thiruvananthapuram city that has an International airport, human resource and social infrastructure

The cost for dredging that will come annually for cochin port is a very small sum when compared to the huge revenue generated fom a project like the proposed container terminal. The main advantage that Cochin ejoys is that it is in a more safer location compared to Vizhinjam. Not only because of strategic facilities but even in a natural disaster like tsunami, remeber, Cochin and Calicut were among the least affected parts of coastal India.

I can quote the words of the Shipping Secretary, Mr D. T. Joseph regarding this issue.

'It is a fact that investment of the order of Rs 1,000 crore is required for the construction of the breakwaters for providing the harbour basin at Vizhinjam whereas the capital investment required for providing the deeper channel at Kochi is Rs 400 crore. The difference in capital investment will be more than sufficient to suffix the cost of maintenance dredging at Kochi.'

His justification for the decision was based on the fact that the basic infrastructure already existed at Kochi for a transhipment terminal and any major investment it succeeded in attracting, either from domestic or foreign players, could be effectively used to fetch proper returns without much delay. But the statistics he quotes are very far from reality.

Although Vizhinjam has the marginal advantage of being closer than Kochi to the trunk sea route between the Persian Gulf and East Asia, it has the deficiency of being away from the hinterland that generates container traffic.

Moreover, Vizhinjam currently lacks a well-developed system of road and rail connectivity, which Kochi enjoys, and it will also be difficult to develop these facilities to meet the requirements of container traffic matching the transhipment requirement, he said.

Further, the much-projected availability of 25 metres water depth at Vizhinjam is actually in the sea, at a distance of more than one nautical mile.

At present, there are no port facilities at Vizhinjam and for developing such facilities, a harbour basin protected from the waves and currents should be created by the construction of a breakwater and requiring substantial investments.

According to the kerala government's official website,

Water depth of 16m to be increased to 18.7m in phased manner, at berth, would allow vessel sizes upto 12000 TEUs. This together with a design capacity of 1.1 million TEUs going upto 4.1 million TEUs would serve the transshipment needs of the region. The initial project cost enveloping state-of-the-art facilities and equipment is estimated to be INR 18.5 billion (approximately US$ 425 million)

Apart from this, the Kerala Ports also agree that they will have to make a SEZ(Special Economic Zone) at Vizhinjam too, that would cost something around a 800 crore again. Whereas Cochin has CSEZ at the side of newly built Seaport-Airport road.

L&T Ramboll conducted a study about Vizhinjam port and found out that, to develope it as a port (Without considering any other facilities), it requires a four stage master plan. If it completes by the projected time, the cumulative cost will be 7359 million rupees. More than 60% of that could be reduced if it is build upon Kochi. And the time required to build and establish a port at Kochi is much shorter compared to what would be needed at Vizhinjam.

Why did Vizhinjam get a boost?

It was only after the proposal of Vallarpadam container terminal, that people started thinking of Vizhinjam. The cochin port is ruled by a seperate port trust and the revenue from it is much higher compared to the gross revenue from all other ports in Kerala. All the other ports are governed by Kerala Ports . So it was they who proposed a plan for Vizhinjam. Neither the Central government nor the Dubai Port has shown an interest in Vizhinjam. They are interested in Kochi. The only problem is from Kerala local politicians who want to get votes of people playing cheap tricks and in Kochi it is hard to make an influence with such acts. Trivandrum would easily fall a prey to these tactics.

And Cochin has the largest shipbuilding and repairing facilities in India. If all these are combined Cochin would be one of the biggest ports in the world.

My final word would be Kochi.


Thanks to independent sources like wikipedia and kerala government official websites. And study report from L&T Ramboll Consultancies.

Vizhinjam & Vallarpadam

Now the Govt has again requested for tenders for Vizhinjam. And Vallarpadam has already done all the background work and is ready to start the first phase in 2007. I quickly called up a friend who is working in the Cochin Port and had always been interested in Vallarpadam (which gave him a nick name Port in our friend circle). Understandably, he was surprised that after he called me last time nearly six months back, all of a sudden I called him to ask what is happening with Vallarpadam. ;))) But he was co-operative and pardoned me for my long silence as his blood started "boiling" by the mention of Vallarpadam.

Though we had a long chat, I am still at the same place where I was earlier. Both are Trans-Shipment hubs, intended to save nearly 1000 cr of our Forex that we loose at Colombo and Dubai ports. Only difference is that Vallarpadam has a direct Center involvement where as Vizhinjam is with the State Govt.

My understanding is that:-

-> Vizhinjam has deeper water level enabling smoother transmissions of Mother Terminals.

-> It doesn't need dredging every year as Vallarpadam needs.

-> But at the same time Vallarpadam is a natural port and will not need facilities for the shock wave reduction. (I don't know what is it called).

-> The ground work is already done for Vallarpadam and it looks like it will be carried out as per schedule.

Now the questions are that:- Are both these ports competing for the same share of business? In that case why do we need to spend so much money for two ports if one can handle the entire load?

Google always doesn't help. So if any of you have any info on these, pls feel free to post.

Being a die-hard Kochite, I would like to see Vallarpadam coming up. I have joined a community called I want Vizhinjam in Orkut just not to miss any developments that might hinder Vallarpadam. ;))

From the news

Honorable High Court of Kerala has banned students’ politics in Colleges also now.

I am not sure if I am for it or against it. My father had been one of the first members of SFI in Kerala. Though he was never a leader, he was always a loyal member. And my younger brother had won his school election as an SFI candidate, before politics was banned in schools. Even though I had been the School Leader, College Chairman & Sub-Editor it was all in girls school, a Christian Women’s college and a no-politics graduation. I guess given a chance I would have been an active SFI member. But let me be frank, I had no clue about any SFI ideology. I still don't have. It was just the Leftism in the blood.

Till the time I was in Kerala and even after till my brother was in college, every year both of us used to keep our fingers crossed during the college election time. Those SFI colleges, KSU strongholds and attempts by ABVP.

For one thing, viewing the whole thing as an outsider, I feel students’ politics has brought more harm than good. But we can not ignore their involvement during some of intra-college issues concerning only the students of the respective institution.

I think this will not affect the political parties who feed the students unions. I have seen a good number of the SFI loyalist becoming staunch Congress supporters after college. But very few KSU or ABVP people shifting loyalties.

The problems I see are that,

1) Unlike schools, it would be impossible to form a students’ forum or union, non-aligned to politics. It might be difficult to fight for the less privileged classes in such an unorganized atmosphere. This might matter a lot in a 50% reservation or politically or religiously influencing syllabus "times".

2)Even if they manage to gather the support of fellow students, the court has strictly said NO to any sort of srikes, dharna etc. So except for some time taking negotiations or other futile methods, no protests can be conducted

But I hope that good side outdoes the other side. Hopefully we will hear less of gory tales.

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