INVC NEWS
Mumbai : The Adani Group company Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore (US$1.2 billion) to strengthen its South India transshipment container port. Its aim is to attract the world’s largest ships. According to media reports, the investment in Kerala’s first Vizhinjam port is part of the second phase of the project which is expected to be completed by 2028. According to people familiar with the plans of the Adani Group, Adani Ports plans to bring the world’s largest container lines such as MSC, AP Moller-Maersk AS and Hapag-Leyard to the port.
Vizinjam Port is located at the southern tip of India and is near international shipping routes. The port has created history by welcoming the first mothership yesterday i.e. on July 11 as part of a trial run in an 800-meter container.
This port of the Adani Group will become commercially operational on Onam in September this year. About a thousand people were present when the ship MV San Fernando arrived at this port and the tricolor was hoisted on this occasion. The ship was given a water salute through tonboats. Vizhingam Port was inaugurated in October.
The group of Asia’s second richest industrialist Gautam Mayersk is trying to put India on the map of the world’s largest container ships and to get a large share of the international maritime trade currently dominated by China.
So far such containers avoid coming to India due to the lack of depth of Indian ports and instead docked at the ports of Colombo, Dubai and Singapore. The investment will be used to increase the length of the existing berths and to increase the port’s breakwater. The breakwater is a rocky wall built in the sea that protects the port from the force of waves.
Transshipment means transferring cargo from a ship to another large ‘mother’ ship headed towards its destination. The Vizhinjam terminal will have bunkering facilities for ships and there are plans to purchase additional cranes, as well as build a cruise terminal to accommodate large luxury lines.
Proximity to international shipping routes, which account for 30 per cent of global cargo traffic, and a natural channel that goes 24 metres below sea level make Vizhinjam an ideal hub for some of the largest ships.
