Why Vizhinjam can take the biggest box ships: natural deep water and transhipment
Background
Vizhinjam Port is a strategic maritime project near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, and the first deep water container transhipment port in India.
As one of the few natural deep-water ports in India, it can efficiently accommodate large cargo and container ships - including the capacity to handle megamax containerships - without the dredging a shallower harbour would need.
This is the first Greenfield port project in India, initiated by a state Government, with an investment exceeding ₹18,000 crores, and it was developed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
Transhipment means moving containers from a very large ocean-going ship onto smaller feeder vessels for the last leg, so a transhipment hub needs depth at the quay rather than a big local market.
The first mother ship to dock there, MV San Fernando, came with a capacity upto 9000 TEUs.
Its strategic location near international shipping routes significantly reduces transit times for vessels, and it is placed to serve commerce between Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
The port brings healthy competition with Colombo and Singapore transhipment hubs, which have long handled cargo bound for India.
Projects worth more than ₹24,000 crores are being implemented in Kerala under the Sagarmala project.
In plain words
TEU Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit — The standard measure of container capacity, counted as one twenty-foot box.
Transhipment Transhipment of cargo — Shifting containers from one ship to another at an intermediate port instead of carrying them all the way.
Greenfield port Greenfield port project — A port built from nothing on a fresh site, rather than an expansion of an existing harbour.
Draught Draught of a vessel — The depth of water a loaded ship needs under it to float clear of the seabed.