Vizhinjam Port to be ready by October 2020

Thiruvananthapuram: Recovering from the damages caused by Cyclone Ockhi to the structures under construction, Vizhinjam International Seaport is expected to be commissioned by October 2020, said Rajesh Jha, the CEO of Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Limited (AVPPL), entrusted to develop and operate the port.
“Ninety eight percent of the piling works for the 800-metre jetty is complete.Orders for equipment, which have to come from Japan and China, have been placed and there’s every possibility that the port would be commissioned by October next year,” he told reporters here on Thursday.
Citing Cyclone Okchi as the reason for the current delay in its progress (as per the agreement, the first phase of the works is to be completed by December 2019), Jha said the impact was severe, causing damages to the dredgers, temporary structures and reclaimed land. “It took a lot of time for the repair work and part of it is still going on. Such things are beyond our control,” he pointed out.
Jha also said that the AVPPL have applied for operating 21 mines in the region for sourcing required granites, and was expecting environmental clearance for them soon.
Jayakumar, the MD and CEO of Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL), the special purpose vehicle supervising the project, said the port will be able to handle big vessels with capacity of even 24,000 TEU, and that its speedy completion was a top priority for the government.
“From the estimated total cost of Rs 7,700 crore, we have already spent Rs 614 crore for land acquisition and Rs 70 crore as livelihood compensation for fishermen. Rs 930 crore has been set apart for the 10.7km railway line connecting the port with Balaramapuram station on the Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram rail route,” Jayakumar, who was also present at the news conference, said.
The rail connection which will be mostly through a tunnel (around 9km in length) need to be commissioned only by 2022, as per the agreement with the AVPPL, Jayakumar said. Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL), which is entrusted to construct the rail line, has already submitted the DPR, which is under evaluation, he said.
Conference ‘to leverage Vizhinjam’
Meanwhile, the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), with the support of the VISL and AVPPL will be organizing a conference on ‘Port-led industrialization and community development – leveraging Vizhinjam’ in the state capital on February 18.
The conference, to be attended by experts from countries including Netherlands and Singapore, will serve as a business summit for international and national investor community, said CII Thiruvananthapuram zone chairman M R Narayanan. “Once commissioned, the port will attract high-tech coastal zone manufacturing and processing, direct and indirect employment to the region, and a cumulative economic cash flow of Rs 28,485 crore in a few decades,” he said.