Close to a year after the Vizhinjam International Seaport began commercial operations, the port has handled a record volume of over 8 lakh twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) containers by facilitating the berthing of around 385 ships. The port is ranked third at the national level after Mundra Port, the flagship port of Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd. and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) in Mumbai. However, the port is ranked first compared to the private ports in the south and east zones this fiscal year in terms of handling cargo volume.
The port, which began limited-scale commercial operations during the five-month trial period that began on July 12, 2024 and subsequently the full-fledged commercial operations on December 3, has been redefining the maritime business from the south shortly after its commissioning. According to the closing volume of Indian private ports in the south and east zones in June, Vizhinjam Port is way ahead of other ports, although closely followed by Chennai International Port with 82,829 TEU and Cochin Port with 81,007.
According to sources in the port, the full-fledged commercial operation of the Vizhinjam port also benefited the Cochin port due to the spillover effect. The port, which recently received environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, will scale up its capacity by setting up additional infrastructure facilities as part of the second and third phases of development. The port concessionaire, Adani Vizhinjam Ports Private Ltd. (AVPPL), will invest around ₹10,000 crore as part of the expansion of the transshipment port.
Upon completion of the second and third phases, the port will see the container handling capacity increased to 30 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) from the 10 lakh TEUs in Phase I. Through the use of automated systems, the capacity of the port can also be increased to 45 lakhs TEUs containers per year.
