New Delhi
8 May 2006
The exit of Dubai Ports World from the Gangavaram Port project near
the Eastern Naval Command's headquarters at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and
its replacement with another foreign company, the Malaysia-based Integrax Berhad,
could still pose a threat to India's interests, according to analysts who have held senior
positions in the government.
A senior analyst told this newspaper that Gangavaram is only 15 to 20 kilometres from
Vizag, which is the hub of India's nuclear submarine activities. "[It is] therefore a
sensitive area from our national security point of view," he said.
A former Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Mr E.A.S. Sarma, in turn, told
this correspondent that the AP Government has refused to entertain his application under
the Right To Information Act seeking details of the project.
"The envelope was returned without opening it," he said. Also, the letters he has written
to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and the Cabinet Secretary have not elicited a
response. All this, he feels, "raises suspicion" about the project.
Integrax Berhad has picked up 20 per cent in the project, in which Andhra Pradesh
Government has 11 per cent stake, a United States-based fund has 18 per cent, and DVS
Raju and associates have 51 per cent stake.
Before the Malaysian company's entry, it was feared that Dubai Ports World (DPW) --
owned by the United Arab Emirates Government -- will have a monopoly of the Indian
container terminal operations.
Those fears were strengthened after DPW purchased the UK-based Peninsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) and acquired control of container terminals at
Nhava Sheva in Mumbai, Chennai, and Mundra in Gujarat.
However, despite its exit from the Gangavaram project, the DPW is going ahead with
investments in a container terminal in Kochi and a private port on the River Hooghly in
West Bengal. In February 2005, it signed an agreement with the Cochin Port Trust to
build, develop and operate a container terminal at Vallarpadam in Kerala.
Political parties like the CPI(M) and the CPI, who are extending outside suppport to the
UPA Government, have in the recent past asked the government to make the port deal
public and to restore the rights of the affected fisherfolk.
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