Breakwater construction at Vizhinjam Seaport over; Trial run of cargo moving in June

THIRUVANANTHPURAM : Construction of the 3-km-long breakwater, said to be the most important one, at the Vizhinjam International Seaport has been completed. With this, the trial run of the loading and unloading of cargo through containers brought in the barges will commence by June second week, following which the commissioning of the port will be done as an Onam gift to Kerala, announced Ports Minister Shri V N Vasavan here.

Shri Vasavan was here to see the newly constructed breakwaters and related works done at the port.

Visiting the automatic crane control unit, he said the port will be an invaluable gift to the whole country. The loading and unloading of the goods at the port will be done on an experimental basis. A trial run of the cargo moving will be done from ships to land and vice versa initially, the minister said, adding that the port company has readied all the technical support and experts for the same.

A total of 32 cranes are required for the cargo moving at the port. As many as 27 cranes have been imported from China till last week. A number of 21 yard cranes as well as six ship to shore cranes have been brought in phases. The remaining two ship to shore cranes and three yard cranes will be brought before May 25.

Shri Vasavan also said that construction of 300 metres more of the road connecting the port with the by-pass has also to be completed.

Minister Shri Saji Cheriyan, Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd. MD Ms.Divya S. Iyer, Port Company CEO Pradeep Jayaraman and Adani Corporate Affairs Head Anil Balakrishnan were also present with the minister.