A moment of pride.

I'd visited the swanky new 'Container Trans - shipment Berth' at Vallarpadam. The infrastructure is still in the process of being set up, with two more phases in the process of development. Spread over an area of 110 hectares, it's a sheer engineering marvel that almost the entire space has been reclaimed from the dredging of the surrounding shallow water area and the reclamation augments the tiny Vallarpadam island!

Highly automated and equipped with heavy duty cranes and associated equipment, the infrastructure will make every Indian proud. For Kerala, it's definitely a boon and it has already brought about a change in the skyline of the surrounding areas. The associated islands were inaccessible and lacked modern communications, once upon a time, but all those have become a thing of the past.

On a personal note, I'd started reading about the 'proposed Supertanker berth' sometime during the mid 80s and with all the problems regarding zeroing in on the site, the project almost being shifted out of the state as part of petty politicking and the tamasha of land acquisition made me wonder as to whether the project would ever take off. So, when I was finally at the huge, well laid out complex, I was flush with pride and glad to be an Indian!

May there be many more such projects!!