Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan performed the groundbreaking ceremony in the presence of Ramachandran Kadannapally, Minister for Ports, Museums, Archaeology and Archives, and APSEZ CEO, Karan Adani, among others.

“We are happy with the progress made so far in developing India’s first-ever transhipment port at Vizhinjam. The port is very strategically located for access to prominent international waterways; this project will enable India to be strategically positioned as a global transhipment hub,” Adani said.

Currently, more than one million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of Indian cargo get transshipped annually through foreign ports such as Colombo in Sri Lanka.

The project will be Kerala’s first-ever deep-water container transhipment port, with a deep draft of 20.5 meters and the first phase of the berth being constructed will be 800 metres in length.

The project is moving as per schedule reaching the half-way milestone post the successful land reclamation stage and is well on course to be completed within the stipulated time period of four years, said a company statement.

The port location – closer to the state-capital Thiruvananthapuram, is selected to tap the potential of development as a deep-water international multi-cargo port. The proposed site is on the international shipping route connecting Europe, Persian Gulf and the Far East, very close to the east-west shipping axis within 10 nautical miles.

APSEZ currently operates ports in Mundra, Hazira, Tuna-Tekra (Kandla) and Dahej in Gujarat, Dhamra in Odisha, and Katupalli in Chennai and operates specialised coal handling facilities in Mormugao in Goa, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The company is also currently setting up a container terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu.