Vizhinjam Deepwater Container Transshipment Terminal.
The Rs 8000 Crore Vizhinjam Deep-sea Container Transshipment Terminal, which will be the largest port in India, has been awarded to an international consortium led by the Lanco Group. It received clearance from the Defence Ministry on Aug 5, 2008.
Vizhinjam, located near Trivandrum, capital of the state Kerala, is an all-weather port and the international shipping line is just one nautical mile off Vizhinjam coast, very close to the EAST-WEST SHIPPING AXIS. The proposed site is endowed with
natural depth of 24 m (which is by far the best compared to other ports in the world) as close as one Nautical Mile from the sea coast. There is no littoral sedimentation and due to natural depth availability, the site needs no dredging or minimal capital dredging requirements and thus low costs (as compared to the any other port in India within a reasonable distance from the East-West Shipping axis). The depths at ports in New York, Southampton, Singapore, Dubai, Colombo, Hong Kong is 15 meters and requires dredging.
The port can attract large share of the container transshipment traffic which is now being diverted to Colombo, Singapore and Dubai. It can also ensure the badly needed economic development of India other than opening up immense job opportunities. It has more advantages compared to Colombo port and if developed can harbour even Panamax class and futuristic vessels. It also satisfies the physical and hydrographical parameters of modern seaports.
The proposed deepwater international container trans-shipment terminal at Vizhinjam is expected to bring down the total costs of movement of containers to and from foreign destinations, according to the Container Shipment Economics Study.
At present, India's port capacity(12 major Indian ports) is a meagre 4.61 million TEUs/annum compared with China's capacity of 50 million TEUs, almost 11 times that of India's. Vizhinjam Port alone will have the capaciy of 4.10 million TEU/annum.
'Vizhinjam' will change 'Trivandrum' into a global economic and trade hub on the lines of Dubai and Singapore.
Port site.
Welcome to Vizhinjam International Container Transhipment terminal Data sheet