100th commercial vessel calls at Vizhinjam port

Vizhinjam international seaport celebrates 100th commercial vessel docking, showcasing India's emergence as a global transshipment hub.

The Vizhinjam international seaport crossed another milestone by facilitating the docking of the 100th commercial container handling vessel at the port here on Thursday. The vessel, MSC Michela, docked at the port by noon, within hardly six months of the commencement of operations at the port.

Announcing the achievement, Karan Adani, managing director of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., who shared the news on his X profile on Thursday, said the arrival of the 100th commercial vessel at the port in six months is a milestone in India’s rapid emergence as a global transshipment hub. “With automated container handling, this new port in Kerala is a forerunner of our drive towards leveraging state-of-the-art technology in ports and logistics,” he said.

The vessel, sailing under the flag of Portugal, with an impressive Length Overall (LOA) of 299.87 metres and a draft of 12.5 metres, berthed at the port at 1.30 p.m. The vessel that arrived here from Mumbai will leave for Shanghai after the containers are discharged.

The trial run of the port began on July 12 with the successful docking of the 300-metre-long Chinese mothership San Fernando. Since then, the port has been receiving a steady stream of ships, with the authorities starting limited scale commercial operation during the trial period itself. 

Equipped with modern equipment and advanced automation and IT systems, including eight ship-to-shore cranes and 23 cantilevered rail-mounted gantry cranes, India’s first semi-automated port will be formally commissioned by the Prime Minister by next month.

The port, developed by Adani Ports in collaboration with the State government, is India’s first mega transshipment container terminal, strategically positioned just 10 nautical miles from major international shipping routes.