Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), part of the Adani Group, has started construction on India’s international transhipment project of a deepwater multi-cargo port at the Vizhinjam International Seaport at Trivandrum, Kerala. The transhipment terminal is part of the project’s first phase. It will have a deep draft of 20.5 meters and a length of 800 metres.

The terminal is on the international shipping route connecting Europe, the Persian Gulf and Asia. It lies very close to the east-west shipping axis – within 10 nautical miles – and has the potential to become an important international stop.

APSEZ CEO Karan Adani said that the port is strategically located for access to prominent international waterways and that the project will enable India to be strategically positioned as a global transhipment hub. “It will also help us in accelerating our journey towards achieving our vision,” he said.

Expected to be completed in the next four years, the transhipment port is located 16 km south of Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala. The initial phase, which will have a handling capacity of 1.8 million TEUs, is being developed with an investment of US$1.1 billion. The transhipment terminal is expected to save more than US$200 million in costs for Indian companies every year.

In phase two, the length of the berth will be increased to 1,200 metres, increasing the capacity to 3 million TEUs, and in the final phase, the terminal will have a berth length of 2,000 metres, increasing capacity to 5.3 million TEUs.

After becoming operational, the terminal is expected to handle more than 1 million TEUs of Indian cargo. Currently, more than 1 million TEUs of Indian cargo is transhipped annually through foreign ports, such as Colombo in Sri Lanka.

APSEZ is also setting up a container terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu. The company operates ports in Mundra, Hazira, Tuna-Tekra (Kandla) and Dahej in Gujarat; Dhamra in Odisha; and Katupalli in Chennai; and operates specialized coal-handling facilities in Mormugao in Goa and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, India’s all-weather deepwater port on the east coast, Krishnapatnam Port, has installed a first-of-its-kind automated fertilizer handling system that is expected to boost the port’s fertilizer handling capacity.

In a statement, the port said that the system will be equipped to handle end-to-end fertilizer cargo operations from cargo discharge from the vessel through shipping out of the port by road or rail.

This new system will increase the port’s existing handling capacity to more than 3 million tonnes yearly and will also enable the port to meet the increasing demand for imported fertilizers.

By Jagdish Kumar

India Correspondent | Mumbai