Vizhinjam Seaport in Kerala will mark a significant milestone with the docking of the first ship on October 15

The under-construction Vizhinjam Seaport, the nation's first deepwater container transshipment terminal, near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, will achieve a major milestone on Sunday, October 15, with the docking of the first ship. The project's blueprints state that the ₹7,600 crore major infra project's first phase, which started in 2015, should be finished by May 2024. When completely developed, the port will be able to meet 75% of India's demand for container transshipment.

According to officials, the port will have the capacity to accommodate container ships carrying up to 24,000 TEU. As part of the initial phase of development, some 3,000 metres of breakwater and 800 metres of berth are being prepared. Public-private partnership (PPP) finance is being provided by the Keralan government, the Centre, and the developer, Adani Ports Private Limited, for the construction of the Vizhinjam port. 

According to the project specifications, this is really the first greenfield port project to get viability gap assistance from the Indian government. With a natural depth of eighteen metres and a mere ten nautical miles from the international shipping line, the port has the potential to greatly increase the nation's marine trade, which is now hindered by the absence of a major port in southern India.

Vizhinjam's depth, according to the records, exceeds that of all other competitive ports in the nation as well as that of competing ports abroad, including Singapore, Colombo, and Salalah in Oman. Large cargo ships travelling across international shipping lanes will be able to easily enter the port of Vizhinjam thanks to this. One of the port's main advantages is its strategic location—it is the only one in India thus close to the east-west shipping route.

When the port is completely operational, it will be able to directly compete with other ports that now handle a significant portion of the demands for international transshipment, such as Colombo in Sri Lanka, Jebel Ali in Dubai, and Singapore. It would strengthen India's capacity to manage transshipment and gateway cargo while simultaneously building a robust supply chain network in Kerala.

Presently, ports in Singapore and Colombo transship over 3 million TEUs of cargo containers destined for India; if the Vizhinjam port is open, this number might drop dramatically. According to the records, by phase-1's finish, the port will be able to accommodate 1 million TEU of cargo, and by phase-3, that number would climb to 3.3 million TEU.

Additionally, it has easy access to the sixteen-kilometer-distance Thiruvananthapuram international airport and the four-lane NH66. An initiative to create a dedicated goods corridor on rails is being considered, which would expand the supply chain network. Even if the port is shortly to be materialised, the people who are in charge of it have not had an easy time. When building on the port started in 2015, it was supposed to be finished in just 1000 days, but for a variety of reasons, there have been significant delays.