Vizhinjam International Seaport marks the dawn of a new maritime era for India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being briefed about the newly inaugurated Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multi-purpose Seaport in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday, May 2, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Helping the country explore new horizons in the global maritime trade, the newly built all-weather Vizhinjam International Seaport was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Friday (May 3, 2025).

Positioned hardly 10 nautical miles from the international shipping routes connecting Europe, the Gulf region and the Far East, the east-west shipping axis, the port is expected to significantly reduce India’s dependence on other international ports for transshipment of cargo.

Festive spirit gripped the port town when Mr. Modi reached the port by around 10.30 a.m. and was received by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Cabinet colleagues.

The Prime Minister then boarded the ship MSC Celestinomaresca that berthed at the port. Later, he visited the key installations, including the port operations building, before the formal commissioning of the port. 

The first semi-automated one in the country, the port aims to bring home the Indian cargo transshipment presently being undertaken at the foreign ports of Singapore, Colombo, Salalah, and Dubai due to the absence of deep-water seaports in India near the international shipping route. With the port being commissioned, the Vizhinjam becomes a world-class transshipment hub for the Indian subcontinent to service the entire India.

With the site where the port is situated having a natural water depth of up to 20 meters within a kilometre from the coast, suitable to accommodate very large mother vessels, the port is expected to be a game changer for Kerala as well as in South Asia’s maritime trade.

The automation at Vizhinjam Seaport positions it as one of the most technologically sophisticated transshipment ports globally, reducing vessel turnaround times and enhancing India’s capacity to handle large container ships. The operations of all 24 yard cranes mounted at the port are fully automated, while the eight ship-to-shore cranes are operated remotely, making the port the first semi-automated port in the country.

Even before the commissioning of the project, the port achieved many achievements during its trial run and subsequent five months of commercial operation.

Ranked first among 15 ports in southeastern regions of India in terms of cargo handled in February and March 2025 (78,833 TEUs from 40 vessels in February and 1.08 lakhs TEUs from 51 vessels in March), the port has facilitated the berthing of a total of 285 ships to date, handling a whopping 5.93 lakhs TEUs of cargo in such a short span of time, around 110% utilisation of its installed capacity during this period.

Giant mother ships such as MSC Turkiye, one of the largest container vessels in the world (24,346 TEUs) and MSC Claude Girardet with 24,116 TEUs called at the port, showcasing the engineering prowess of the port to the world.

The rubble-mounded breakwater is an engineering marvel. The 2,960-m-long breakwater constructed in water at a depth of 18 m to 20 m with an overall height of 28 m, is equivalent to a 9-storey building, making it the deepest breakwater ever constructed in the country.

Now, with the Ministry of Environment and Forests granting environmental clearance for the second and third phases of development of the port, which will attract an investment of ₹9,560 crore by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) that developed the port under a public-private partnership model with the Kerala government, it will enhance its current capacity from 1 million TEUs / annum to 3 million TEUs / annum by 2028.

The first phase cost of the project is ₹8,867 crore. Of this, the State government’s contribution is pegged at about ₹5,595 crore.

The commissioning of the port was also attended by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Union Ministers of State George Kurien, and Suresh Gopi, State Ministers, and others.