Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) will commence construction on Saturday to expand the capacity of the Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Port to three million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year, with an investment of ₹7,398 crore.
The capacity augmentation is expected to transform Vizhinjam from a national container transshipment port into a major regional transshipment hub, serving the Indian subcontinent, Africa, the Middle East, and key global trade corridors.
The first phase of the port, developed at a cost of around ₹8,800 crore, is capable of handling container vessels of up to 24,000 TEUs. The upcoming expansion will enable the port to accommodate next-generation container vessels of up to 28,000 TEUs, reflecting long-term planning aligned with future global shipping trends.
Following the expansion, Vizhinjam will be able to berth up to five mother vessels simultaneously along a continuous two-kilometre-long container berth, making it one of the longest container berths in India, alongside the PSA International-operated terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port.
While the installed nameplate capacity will rise from one million TEUs to three million TEUs annually, the port will be capable of handling as much as 5.7 million TEUs per year, representing a five-fold increase from its initial capacity.
To support the expansion, APSEZ plans to install 12 additional ship-to-shore cranes, taking the total from eight to twenty, and add 27 new yard cranes to the existing 24. The project also includes extending the container berth by 1,200 metres, lengthening the breakwater by 920 metres to a total of 3.88 kilometres, and reclaiming around 50 hectares of land for container storage yards.
Under the original 2015 concession agreement between the Government of Kerala and Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd, the port was scheduled to be fully developed in phases by 2045, or earlier if traffic exceeded 75 per cent capacity for three consecutive years. However, in view of strong traffic growth and the port’s strategic importance, a supplementary concession agreement was signed on November 28, 2024, to fast-track Phases II, III and IV as a single capacity augmentation programme. This has advanced the development timeline by 17 years, with completion now targeted by December 2028.
A Rare Feat in Early Operations
In its first year of commercial operations, Vizhinjam port handled one million TEUs and has processed 1.45 million TEUs to date, operating at 131 per cent capacity utilisation—a rare achievement for a newly commissioned greenfield port.
Since operations began, the port has handled over 670 vessels, including 40 Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs). It is directly connected to major global trade routes linking Europe, North America, South America, Africa and the Far East, with services operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s largest container carrier.
As India’s first fully automated container port, equipped with advanced automated cranes and digital systems, Vizhinjam has already marked several milestones, including berthing the world’s largest container vessel MSC Irina, docking the deepest-draft container vessel MSC Verona, and handling the highest number of containers exchanged from a single vessel—10,576 TEUs from MSC Paloma.
The inauguration of construction works for the fast-tracked expansion will be held on Saturday and will be inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in the presence of Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal.
