Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a briefing to Thiruvananthapuram on Friday, May 2, 2025 on the newly formed Vizhinjam International Deepwater multi-functional seaport. Image source: ANI
Helping the country explore new horizons of global maritime trade, the newly built all-weather Vizhinjam International Seaport was dedicated to the country on Friday (3 May 2025).
With almost 10 nautical miles of international transport routes from Europe, the Gulf and the Far East, the port is expected to significantly reduce India's reliance on other international cargo transshipments.
When Mr. Modi arrived at the port around 10.30 am, the festive spirit captured the port town and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his colleagues in the cabinet received the port.
The Prime Minister then boarded the captain Celestinomaresca, who was berthed at the port. Later, he visited critical facilities, including the port operation building, before formally debugging the port.
The port is the first semi-automated in the country, aiming to bring home foreign ports currently in Singapore, Colombo, Salalah and Dubai, as India does not have deep water harbours near international transport routes. With the commission of the port, Vizhinjam became a world-class transport hub for the Indian subcontinent to serve the entire India.
The natural water depth at the location where the port is located is 20 meters away from the coast, making it suitable for accommodating very large mother ships. The port is expected to become a game changer for maritime trade in Kerala and South Asia.
Vizhinjam Seaport’s automation positioned it as one of the most technologically sophisticated transshipment ports in the world, reducing ship turnover time and enhancing India’s ability to handle large container ships. Operation of all 24-yard cranes installed at the port is fully automated, while the eight-ship cranes operate remotely, making the port the first semi-automatic port in the country.
Even before the project was commissioned, the port achieved many achievements in its trials and in its subsequent five months of commercial operations.
According to cargoes handled in February and March 2025 (78,833 TEUS, 40 ships from February and 51 ships in March) ranked first among the 15 ports in the southeastern region of India), the port promoted a flight of 285 ships to the point where there were 285 ships for a time of 5.93 rupees, which is a small plate of 5.93 rupees. Its installation capabilities are utilized during this period.
Giant mothers such as MSC Turkiye are one of the largest container ships in the world (24,346 Teus) and MSC Claude Girardet, known in the port as 24,116 Teus, demonstrating the engineering strength of the world's ports.
The breakwater exposed by rubble is a miracle of engineering. The 2,960-meter-long breakwater built in the water, with a depth of 18 to 20 m and a total height of 28 m, is equivalent to a 9-storey building, making it the deepest breakwater ever in the country.
Now, as the Ministry of Environment and Forests grants environmental clearance for the second and third phases of the port's development, this will attract investment of Rs 956 crore by Adani Port and Special Economic Zones Limited (APSEZ), which will establish a port with the Kerala government under a public private partnership to enhance its current 3 million people/teus teus teus/teus/teus teus teus/num through the Kerala government's model to reach 3 million people/teus teus/um um.
The first phase of the project cost Rs 88,67 crore. Among them, the state government contributed approximately Rs 55,950 crore.
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Secretary of State George Kurien and Governor Suresh Gopi, the governor and others also participated in the commissioning of the port.
publishing – May 3, 2025 at 08:30 AM IST
