The container transhipment port at Vizhinjam near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, run by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), handled 1.30 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first full financial year of operations, making it the fastest Indian port to reach the 1 million milestone in the first year of operations.

The container transhipment port started commercial operations in December 2024.

Between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026, Vizhinjam handled 607 vessels with transhipment volumes reaching 1.296743 million TEUs.

In March alone, the facility handled 61 vessels and transhipment volumes of 1,18,678 TEUs.

The entire volume at Vizhijam has been underwritten by Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., the world's largest container shipping line.

APSEZ has started work on expanding the capacity of Vizhinjam, entailing an investment of about Rs16,059 crores, which will add 4.1 million TEUs, i.e. 2.56 times the capacity of the first phase of 1 million TEUs.

The Phase 2 development of Vizhinjam will benefit from the shared infrastructure of Phase 1, such as the initial breakwater, access roads, boundary wall, container scanner, gate complex, etc.

On the marine side, as against 3 kilometres of breakwater for Phase 1, Phase 2 will require only an incremental 920 meters of breakwater.

The scope of Phase 2 is notably greater than that of Phase 1. For instance, Phase 2 equipment includes 21 automated ship-to-shore cranes, 45 automated rail-mounted gantry cranes for yard operations, a rail handling yard (which was not part of Phase 1), and state-of-the-art electrical and automation systems to ensure seamless operations.

While Vizhinjam is currently the most advanced and fully automated transhipment port in India, Phase 2 will be undertaken with updated automation in technologies and equipment.

The construction and development of Phase 2 of Vizhinjam Port is estimated to take 3 years. Testing and readiness are expected to continue for another 10 months thereafter.

Source: ET Infra. Com 

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