The Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala - India's first mega transshipment container terminal - is the answer to a shipping problem that costs up to $220 million in revenue annually.
A project costing Rs 8,900 crore, it was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday morning and is expected to not only win back that revenue, but also strengthening India's position in global trade, enhance logistics efficiency, and reduce reliance on foreign ports.
What Is Vizhinjam
It is a deepwater container transshipment port.
The waters off the port, up to a kilometre away, are between 18 and 20 metres deep, making it perfectly suited to allow very large tankers, or 'mother vessels' to approach and dock.
This includes next-generation cargo vessels - with a capacity of 24,000+ TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, which is the standard unit of measurement to quantify the carrying load of a container ship. A single TEU is equal to a container 20 feet long, eight wide, and nine high.
In fact, this month the world's largest eco-friendly container ship, the Turkiye, operated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company, docked at Vizhinjam Port, which is 230km from Kochi.
The MSC Turkiye is 400 metres long, 61 metres wide, and 33 metres deep.
The Turkiye, for context, is 400 metres long, 61 metres wide, has a depth of 34 metres, and can carry over 24,300 TEUs. It is one of the largest container ships ever built.
Why Is Vizhinjam Important
Because, at present nearly 75 per cent of all maritime cargo bound for India is transhipped at foreign ports like Singapore, Colombo, or Dubai - i.e., goods on large containers, which Indian ports can't accommodate, were transferred to smaller vessels that can dock.
Not anymore.
Operated by Adani Ports and Adani Ports Special Economic Zone, Vizhinjam is now, in fact, the Indian subcontinent's only transshipment hub and its location - 10 nautical miles (19km) from the east-west shipping channel - gives the Indian shipping industry and economy a big boost.
READ | PM Commissions Vizhinjam Port, Developed By Adani Group, In Kerala
The Vizhinjam Port means Indian exporters and importers can begin to recover additional costs - between $80 to $100 per container - because India did not have a transshipment terminal.
And with 75 per cent of the country's transshipment cargo earlier routed via foreign ports, this eliminates Indian industries' big vulnerability to increased costs, logistical inefficiencies and congestion issues, and also negates long-term risks to the country's trade competitiveness.
Vizhinjam Port also has the potential to become a world-class transshipment hub, for the country and the sub-continent, for three very important reasons.
Proximity to international shipping routes
The east-west shipping channel connects Europe and North America to East Asian countries.
Vizhinjam is located within an easy distance of this channel, making it cost- and time-efficient for cargo ships operating from one side of the world to the other to berth.
Minimal littoral drift
Basically this means the port saves on maintenance dredging during years of operation.
Littoral drift, also called longshore drift, is when sediment at the bottom of the ocean moves along the coast due to the action of the waves. This is bad news for ports since it leads to sediment accumulation on the updrift side and erosion on the other, and requires regular desilting to maintain navigational depths and remove underwater obstacles.
Changes in shoreline due to erosion or accretion can also compromise coastal protection measures and increase the risk of flooding and storm surge damage.
Connectivity
The geographical advantages of the port location are complemented by easy access to existing rail and road networks, making it easy and cost-efficient to move cargo inland.
National Highway 47, which connects Salem and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, is just 2km from the port, and rail networks connecting Vizhinjam to other parts of the country are 12km away.
Trivandrum International Airport is just 15km from the port.
For all these reasons Vizhinjam International Seaport has been identified as a key priority project for the government, a point the Prime Minister stressed as he commissioned it.
"Vizhinjam will bring economic stability to Kerala and India," the PM said at an event after the inauguration ceremony that was attended by Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
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