Top management going professional

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL), the government company formed in 2007 for making the multi-crore Vizhinjam Seaport Project a reality, is turning pro. The State Government has kicked off a restructuring of its top management to make the company more professional in its approach towards the project.As part of this, the State Government had recently appointed Suresh Kumar, a former KINFRA official, as managing director. Now, the Ports Department is planning to bring in a chairman and a vice-chairman, financial advisors and ports experts as well, Ports Minister K Babu said."What VISL needs is a professional management. This was lacking up to now. A professional approach is required, if the first phase is to be implemented by 2015,’’ he said. "We have announced a fresh schedule for the project and we plan to stick to it,’’ he said.When VISL was formed, it had an independent CEO in Jayakumar, who had experience with container transshipment terminals.  But he was later shunted out. Ever since, successive ports secretaries of the State have doubled as MD and CEO. On one occasion, the V S Achuthanandan government’s efforts to get a senior IAS official of the Kerala cadre to take over as MD had failed after he declined the offer.L Radhakrishnan, who was Ports Secretary for much of the LDF government’s tenure, had later left as chairman of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai.  He was succeeded by Manoj Joshi, who took over as the Ports Secretary. But now, the UDF Government wants a thoroughly professional team at the helm of VISL affairs. In the new scheme of things, the State Ports Secretary will remain a director on the VISL Board.On Tuesday, K Babu informed the Assembly of his Department’s plans to strengthen VISL. Replying to questions, he said that the project had received site-specific clearances for the ToR for conducting environment studies in June. L&T Ramboll is conducting the EIA, which the State hoped to obtain in 2012.