Kerala’s Vizhinjam Port to be commissioned by May 2024

Padmesh Prabhune

The international container transhipment port at Vizhinjam near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala will be fully commissioned by May 2024, Karan Adani, Chief Executive Officer, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), which is building the new port, said at the recently held meet wherein the company announced the fourth quarter and annual financial results.

While the Phase 1 (400 metres quay) of the container transhipment port, designed to cut India’s dependence on nearby Colombo is to be commissioned by March 2024, the balance work in all likelihood will be completed by May 2024.

Vizhinjam is being developed as a container transhipment port with an investment of Rs5,552 crore because of its basic infrastructure having  20 meters of natural water depth that allows big mother ships to dock, a key requirement for hosting a transhipment hub. Further, the port is only 12 nautical miles from the international shipping route, giving direct access to international trade.

The new port is designed to cut India’s dependence on nearby Colombo — a regional transhipment hub — to send and receive cargo containers entailing extra time and costs for exporters and importers. Annually, around 3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of India-bound cargo containers are transshipped at neighbouring country ports such as Colombo, Singapore and other regional ports of which Colombo handles about 2.5 million TEU’s.

According to the concession agreement signed on August 17, 2015, Vizhinjam port was slated to start operations on December 3, 2019 but was delayed with force majeure events such as the Cyclone Ockhi, high waves, a National Green Tribunal order, the pandemic, Cyclone Tauktae, and alike.

–Marex Media