Thiruvananthapuram, Construction on the Vizhjinjam sea port started on Thursday with trucks full of materials arriving onto the project site after the fishermen temporarily ended their almost 130-day agitation there two days ago.
Footage of the project site given by a source within the Adani Group showed the arrival of trucks carrying building supplies and the absence of protesters who had been camping there for more than four months.
After the agitation was put to an end on Tuesday, protesters told the Kerala High Court the following day that they were taking down the tent that had been erected outside the port.
The statement was delivered at a hearing for a plea by Adani Group seeking contempt proceedings against the protesters for disobeying the court's orders not to block access to the project site.
With the agitation being called off and the protestors assuring to remove the tent at the protest site, the High Court had closed the contempt pleas.
Subsequently, on Thursday, the construction work commenced at the port and the source said that the barge movement will start soon and in a few days it will be working at full swing.
The priority would be given to completing the construction of the 2,960 metres long breakwater of which around 1,400 metres have been completed, the source said.
Piling required for berth construction, main power sub-station, port operation building, gate complex, workshop and a third of the port approach road -- including two bridges forming part of it -- stood completed, the source added.
The source also said that 60 per cent of the reclamation for backyard construction has also been completed.
The over four-month long protest was called off on Tuesday after discussions between the leaders of the agitation and the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
A large number of fisherfolk had been staging demonstrations outside the main entrance of the multi-purpose sea port at Mulloor near Thiruvananthapuram for over four months.
They had been pressing for their seven-point charter of demands that include stopping the construction work and conducting a coastal impact study in connection with the multi-crore project.
The agitators had been alleging that the unscientific construction of groynes, the artificial sea walls as part of the upcoming port, were some of the reasons for the increasing coastal erosion.
The protesters had attacked Vizhinjam police station on the night of November 27, injuring several policemen.
(With inputs from PTI)
