After the successful berthing of the first mother ship, San Fernando, at the Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala on July 11, the seaport altogether handled a record container volume of around 25,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in just two-and-a-half months of the limited scale commercial operation. This is around 40% of the targeted throughput of 60,000 TEUs planned in the current financial year, according to sources.
The yet-to-be-commissioned port has been witnessing a beehive of activity in the past month, with a record number of mother vessels and feeder vessels taking beeline to berth at the port. Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) vessel MSC Rose has called at the port on Monday, while vessels like MSC Alva, MSC Eyra, MSC Anna, MSC Palermo will dock at the port in just one week.
Among the vessels to be called here this week, MSC Anna, one of the largest container ships in the world that had docked at the Mundra port on May 26, will be arriving at Vizhinjam in two days. The colossal ship measuring 399.98 meters in length, 58 m beam, and impressive draft will be the third largest ship to berth in Vizhinjam after MSC Kayley, a ship with 16.5 meter draft that successfully berthed at the port in the first week of September, followed by the ultra large container vessel MSC Claude Girardet.
MSC Claude Girardet was the biggest vessel to come to India with a container capacity of 24,116 TEUs, the previous biggest was MSC Anna with a capacity of 19,462 TEUs. The ship with a length of 399.99 m, a width of 61.5 m, and a draft of 16.7 m was the largest container ship that docked at the Vizhinjam port, scripting a new chapter in Indian maritime history. The giant container ship can in fact load up to 18.37 m draft and carry 27,1957 metric tonnes. That was not the cargo carrying capacity, but the total carrying capacity including fuel, ballast water, and other weights, according to sources.
With the full-fledged setting up of an AI-assisted automated control room at Vizhinjam to control the navigation of the ships approaching the port and completion of the remaining work of the yard at the port, the port can be commissioned for full-scale operation by December, said sources.
