Lanco Wins India's Largest Container Transhipment Port Project in Kerala

Logistics Insight Asia - Industry News, 26/5/2008

Lanco Consortium has emerged winner for development of the INR 8000 Cr (USD 2 Billion) Vizhinjam International Container Port Project in Kerala. LANCO has tied-up with Pembinan Radzai Sdn. Bhd (PRSB), Malaysia.

The Port was bid out by Government of Kerala (GoK) in August 2007 through Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited on a 33 years’ concession basis. The other contenders that were in the race for the project include NCC- Maytas, Videocon - Gammon – SICAL, Apollo Enterprise - DS Construction, Zoom Developers -Portia Management Services.

The Project site is situated at Vizhinjam, about 16 km south of Thiruvananthapuram. The project site boasts of a unique location at India’s southern tip and enjoys closest proximity (10 nautical miles) for International sea routes connecting Europe, Persian Gulf & Far East etc. The Vizhinjam coast is an attractive site in the southwest coast of India, best suited for the development of a all weather deep-water port focused on both Domestic and International Container Transshipment Traffic.

The project is proposed to be developed as a Container Transshipment hub, given its 15 meter natural draft and proximity to International sea routes. The project is to be developed in 4 phases with an ultimate capacity of 6.5 Million TEUs (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit). The Port will be equipped with state of the art technology, equipment and highest industry service standards.

The Construction of the initial phase would be completed in 60 months and the other 3 phases will be initiated after reaching stipulated traffic levels.

The port, when developed, would attract a fair share of the Container Transshipment traffic meant for India, currently handled by international ports at Colombo, Malaysia, Al-Salalah and Singapore. The project is expected to benefit Indian companies engaged in export and imports as it would save substantial foreign exchange outgo, time, costs and other transshipment risks associated with some of the other foreign ports.

Lanco Group, www.lancogroup.com