Mammoth vessel from China arrives at Vizhinjam International Seaport

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Zhen Hua 15, a massive Chinese vessel carrying huge container-handling cranes, arrived at the Vizhinjam International Seaport on Thursday marking the beginning of Thiruvananthapuram emerging as the next global port city.

Zhen Hua set sail from China in August and was originally scheduled to arrive here on October 4. However, rough weather slowed down its journey.

On arrival, tug boats gave the cargo ship a water salute as it docked at the seaport at 11:30 a.m.

The vessel will be formally welcomed at a function in Vizhinjam on October 15 in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Before reaching Vizhinjam, the ship made a stopover at Mundra port in Gujarat to offload cranes.

The three essential cranes brought by the ship are crucial for the development and smooth operations of the port. While ship-to-shore cranes are used for transporting containers from the vessel to the yard, all container movements inside the port will be handled by the yard cranes.

These cranes will be operated for six months under the supervision of technical experts from the Shanghai PMC, a multinational engineering company and the world's largest manufacturer of cranes.

The Rs 7700 crore mega Vizhinjam International Seaport is India's first container transhipment port, and once it becomes operational, it will allow huge motherships to be anchored on the Indian coast. Once complete, the port will be able to anchor two motherships at a time, each of which can carry 15,000 to 20,000 containers.

Currently, such ships are anchored at ports in Colombo, Salalah, and Singapore, and the cargo is transported to Indian ports in smaller ships and feeder ships, leading to loss of time and money.

Despite several challenges, including the Ockhi cyclone, protests by the local fishermen community, the Covid pandemic, and the shortage of boulders, the authorities managed to keep the project up and running. Most of the works, including those related to container berth construction, yard berth construction breakwater, dredging, and construction of buildings and infrastructure for port operations, are continuing at a fast pace.