India’s ambitions of rising an Indian Ocean transshipment hub acquired a lift on October 15 when Vizhinjam Worldwide Seaport close to Thiruvananthapuram within the southern state of Kerala welcomed its first ship, the Hong Kong-flagged Zhen Hua 15 carrying cranes from Shanghai for the port web site.
Vizhinjam Port is India’s first deepwater container transshipment port. It has a pure draft of 18-20 meters, which signifies that a few of the largest container vessels on the planet will be capable of dock right here. Port officers say that Vizhinjam Port will be capable of deal with container vessels with 24,000 twenty-foot equal items (TEU) capability and extra.
Importantly, Vizhinjam is positioned round 10 nautical miles from the worldwide transport route connecting Europe and the Persian Gulf with East Asia by which round 30 p.c of world maritime cargo passes.
Absolutely owned by the Kerala authorities, Vizhinjam Port is being constructed by Adani Vizhinjam Ports Non-public Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd (APSEZ), India’s largest non-public sector port operator.
The port is predicted to be absolutely operational by Might 2024. It’ll have a capability of 1 million TEUs in section 1 and one other 6.2 million TEUs can be added in subsequent phases.
India has a 7,500-kilometer-long shoreline. Though round 200 main and minor ports dot this shoreline, the nation’s port infrastructure is dismal. Not one of those ports figures on the planet’s prime 30 ports.
Apart from, most Indian ports have a shallow draft. Which means vessels with giant tonnage, more and more the norm in worldwide maritime commerce at present, can not dock at Indian ports.
Consequently, giant container vessels with consignment meant for India should offload at close by transshipment ports the place the cargo is then loaded onto smaller feeder ships that may dock at Indian ports.
Ships with cargo headed to India have subsequently needed to dock at transshipment ports at Colombo in Sri Lanka, Jebel Ali in Dubai, Klang in Malaysia, and Singapore Port as a substitute of Indian ports. India has been closely depending on these overseas ports for transshipment of cargo.
Presently, nearly 75 percent of India’s transhipped cargo is dealt with at overseas ports, with Colombo, Singapore and Klang ports dealing with over 85 p.c of this cargo. Colombo Port alone handles 45 p.c of India’s transshipped consignments.
“Vizhinjam port is predicted to alter this. It’ll have the capability to cater to 75 p.c of India’s container transshipment wants,” an official at India’s Ministry of Delivery and Ports advised The Diplomat. It will save India “a considerable amount of overseas alternate that it has been paying to overseas ports to fulfill its transshipment wants.” Moreover, “we predict a slice of the transshipment enterprise presently going to Dubai, Sri Lanka and Singapore to come back to India,” the official mentioned.
North of Vizhinjam port is one other container transshipment terminal at Vallarpadam at Kochi additionally in Kerala, which is operated by Dubai Ports World.
A 3rd transshipment port is being developed at Galathea Bay within the Nice Nicobar island of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. With a pure depth of 20 meters, Galathea Bay like Vizhinjam can accommodate giant container vessels. Situated some 40 nautical miles from the East-West transport route and mendacity outdoors the crowded Malacca Strait, the port at Galathea Bay can be hoping to draw giant container ships with freight headed to nations like Bangladesh and Myanmar amongst others which were utilizing ports in Singapore and Malaysia.
So, what are the possibilities of the transshipment ports propelling India into a significant Indian Ocean transshipment hub?
The destiny of Vallarpadam Port doesn’t bode properly. Over a decade after the port started operations, it’s nonetheless functioning means beneath capability. Apart from, it by no means reworked itself right into a transshipment terminal; just 6 percent of the containers dealt with by the port in 2020 had been transshipment containers. A significant a part of Vallarpadam’s downside is that its pure draft is simply 14.5 meters, which implies it can not accommodate giant container ships. It must be dredged commonly which provides to the prices of working the port.
Some have identified that the three Indian transshipment ports in such proximity — Vizhinjam port is about 180 nautical miles from Vallarpadam port — will make it troublesome for them to draw sufficient enterprise.
Jose Paul, former performing chairman of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Mumbai, and former chairman of the Mormugao Port Belief in Goa draws attention to ports which can be positioned shut to one another and thrive. “Port Klang and Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia co-exist inside a distance of about 150 nautical miles, Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi within the UAE are inside 81 nautical miles, and Tacoma and Seattle within the US are inside 33 nautical miles,” he advised Rediff information portal. Likewise, “Vallarpadam and Vizhinjam can coexist as a result of Vallarpadam can solely accommodate container ships as much as a most of 10,000 TEU capability whereas Vizhinjam can accommodate even the extremely giant container ships with capability starting from 10,000 to 25,000 TEUs or much more.”
In different phrases, “these two ports can complement and complement one another of their respective segments and there needn’t be any rivalry between” them.
Whereas Vizhinjam’s pure endowments i.e., its deep draft and placement make it a horny transshipment choice, this alone is not going to be sufficient to attract the fiercely aggressive transport enterprise. “Aggressive pricing and turnaround time are crucial to attracting transport visitors, the transport ministry official mentioned. Moreover, overland connectivity infrastructure, together with roads and railway hyperlinks, should be improved.
