The first mother vessel, ‘San Fernando’ chartered by Maersk (AP Moller Group), Denmark, that called at the Vizhinjam International Seaport as part of the commencement of the limited-scale commercial operation, will leave for Colombo on Monday with 607 containers loaded back onto the vessel after discharging around 1,930 containers at the port. The process of unloading and reloading the containers took slightly longer than anticipated.
However, the port sources clarified that it would take some time for the staff to become familiar with the advanced automated systems implemented for the first time in a port in the county. Though another mother vessel of the Mediterranean Shipping Company with a length of around 400 meters was expected to make a port call soon after the return of the ship chartered by Maersk, it has learnt that the new vessel will make a call at the port only after a week or more as the port authorities need time to review the operational performance of the port infrastructure after the first port call.
Meanwhile, the Colombo Port, the immediate competitor of the Vizhinjam Port, has been facing a crisis due to a recent strike and increased traffic congestion, forcing many shipping lines to bypass the port. Vessels calling at the Colombo Port, which has recorded an increase of around 12.5% in the number of vessels calling at the port during the first half of the year, are said to be taking inordinate time for berthing.
The traffic congestion at Singapore’s container port is also at its worst, triggered by global cues including the Red Sea crisis. Though global developments are in favour of Vizhinjam expanding its wings further, the port is unlikely to advance its commissioning date further, said sources. Also, Vizhinjam is likely to offer vessel-related charges (VRC) at par with the rates levied by Colombo and other regional transshipment hubs in the regions in order to woo the global shipping giants to Kerala, said sources.
The newly opened port for commercial operations on a limited scale is likely to continue the commercial trial run for the next two to three months, and after the trial run, it will fix the date for commissioning. The port authorities are hopeful of completing the remaining infrastructure works during this period of trial run.
