KOCHI, India, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Protesters at a fishing community blocked attempts by India’s Adani group to resume work at a $900 million transhipment port in southern India, a company spokesman said on Saturday, prolonging a shutdown that was taking place brought the development of the port to a standstill.

Construction of Adani’s Vizhinjam seaport in Kerala state on the southern tip of India has been halted for more than three months after protesters, mostly Christians and led by Catholic priests, erected a large shelter blocking the entrance and said development of the Harbors have caused coastal erosion, causing them to be deprived of their livelihoods.

The Adani group, led by the world’s third-richest man Gautam Adani, tried to bring heavy vehicles into the port on Saturday after construction was forced to resume this week, but protesters blocked them from entering, an Adani spokesman said in the South State of Kerala told Reuters.

About 25 trucks had attempted to enter the port and were forced to turn back after two were hit with stones by the protesters, the spokesman added.

Calls to senior state police officials went unanswered.

Television footage from local news agency Manorama showed dozens of police officers in riot gear stationed outside the port arguing with protesters. A group of protesting women were also seen on the road leading to the port.

“We won’t let them in,” one protester was seen shouting at police officers near the port entrance.

The Adani group said the project complies with all laws and that many studies in recent years have dismissed claims linking the project to coastal erosion. The Kerala state government says the erosion occurred due to natural disasters.

The shutdown is a major headache for Adani, which runs a $23 billion ports and logistics business and has touted the seaport’s “unmatched location” on a key global shipping route. The port is considered potentially well positioned to attract business from ports in Sri Lanka, Singapore and Dubai.

In recent months, the Adani group has repeatedly petitioned Kerala State Court for a remedy, which has said the port’s entrance and exit must not be blocked, but protesters have refused to back down.

“There is no way we will remove the protest shelter. Our lives are at stake,” Joseph Johnson, a protesting fisherman, told Reuters on Saturday.

The 1,200-square-foot structure, with a corrugated iron roof and banners proclaiming “indefinite day and night protest,” has blocked the port’s entrance since August. An earlier attempt by Adani in October to move trucks out of the port also failed.

Writing by Aditya Kalra; Edited by Edmund Klaman

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