Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 24 (IANS): Adani Ports has emerged as the lone bidder for Kerala's dream project, the Vizhinjam Port.

The proposed port is to come up near the famed Kovalam beach and is expected to be completed in three phases, with the first phase to be ready by 2019.

Speaking to IANS, Kerala's Minister for Ports K. Babu described it to be the best news to have come for a while.

"The biggest advantage in Adani coming up is that they are a port development company and are in this business. Now the tender documents would be processed first by an empowered committee, then it would be checked by the director board of the proposed port, and then it comes to the cabinet," the minister said.

"There is no problem that Adani Ports is the lone bidder because this project has been on the cards for several years," Babu said.

"Also in Kerala there are problems whenever a big project is conceived and it takes a lot of time to resolve all problems, even after every sanction is received. So taking everything into account, there is not going to be any technical hitch if there is only one bidder," said Babu.

Incidentally in February when the tender date came to a close, not a single company had bid for the project and then a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy decided to extend the date till Friday 5.30 p.m.

Adani Port officials submitted their bid just before the official close of the time.

Once completed, ships with a capacity of even 18,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) could dock here. The proposed port, as it is located close to the busy international shipping route, is envisaged to handle 4.1 million containers annually.