News and information about the Rs 10,000 Crore Vizhinjam Deep Water and Container Transshipment Terminal project being developed on the southern outskirts of Trivandrum.
First, a quick recap of the project.
Vizhinjam has a number of inherent advantages which are strategic and nearly unbeatable in nature:
- A draft of 18 m, just 1 kilometer from the shore and which can be increased upto 25 m with minimal dredging.
- Located on the Southern tip of the sub-continent, it is just 10-12 nautical miles from the busy Persian Gulf - Malacca shipping lanes which carry almost a third of the world shipping traffic.
- Vizhinjam has minimal littoral drift which eliminates the need for major annual dredging, unlike estuarine ports like Cochin.
- It is located within the suburbs of a major city.
- The NH-47 passes just 2 Kms away from the site and the main rail line only 8 Kms away.
Vizhinjam is currently the only port in India capable of achieving a draught of over 18 m without major capital dredging. This makes it the only port in India capable of handling giant ships like today's super-container ships and supertankers.
The port will look to attract the largest container-ships of today for transshipment, like the 12,000 TEU capacity Emma Maersk, which cannot dock at any other Indian port.
As envisaged in the above concept view, Vizhinjam will have the following features:
- Breakwaters up to 6 Km long
- Six berths for motherships
- Up to ten berths for feeder vessels
- 400 acres of container yards and other areas, reclaimed from the sea
- Around 2 Sq.km of basin area
- A basin draft of 18-24 m
- Bunkering facilities
- Dedicated 110 KV sub-station and water treatment plant
- Elevated road and rail connections
First, a quick recap of the project.
According to the developers, the ultimate capacity of the port will be about 6.5 million TEUs. This is about 25% of the capacity of the Port of Singapore, the world's busiest container port.
Vizhinjam has a number of inherent advantages which are strategic and nearly unbeatable in nature:
- A draft of 18 m, just 1 kilometer from the shore and which can be increased upto 25 m with minimal dredging.
- Located on the Southern tip of the sub-continent, it is just 10-12 nautical miles from the busy Persian Gulf - Malacca shipping lanes which carry almost a third of the world shipping traffic.
- Vizhinjam has minimal littoral drift which eliminates the need for major annual dredging, unlike estuarine ports like Cochin.
- It is located within the suburbs of a major city.
- The NH-47 passes just 2 Kms away from the site and the main rail line only 8 Kms away.
Vizhinjam is currently the only port in India capable of achieving a draught of over 18 m without major capital dredging. This makes it the only port in India capable of handling giant ships like today's super-container ships and supertankers.
The port will look to attract the largest container-ships of today for transshipment, like the 12,000 TEU capacity Emma Maersk, which cannot dock at any other Indian port.
As envisaged in the above concept view, Vizhinjam will have the following features:
- Breakwaters up to 6 Km long
- Six berths for motherships
- Up to ten berths for feeder vessels
- 400 acres of container yards and other areas, reclaimed from the sea
- Around 2 Sq.km of basin area
- A basin draft of 18-24 m
- Bunkering facilities
- Dedicated 110 KV sub-station and water treatment plant
- Elevated road and rail connections