Kerala plans its third major port at Azhikkal

Kerala plans to set up its third major port at Azhikkal, following the central government’s directive to coastal states to set up such facilities.

If the Azhikkal port development plan works out, the state would have three main ports — already operational Kochi Port Trust and the planned Vizhinjam port. Vallarpadam, which facilitates transhipment cargo, is part of the Kochi Port Trust.

Major ports are central government controlled ports, administrated as trusts, except for Ennore port, which is run as a company.

“The Central government had asked coastal states to open another major port in the state. We have proposed Azhikkal port to be developed as a major one,” said Oommen Chandy, Kerala chief minister, on the sidelines of CII World Economic Forum-Indian Economic Summit here on Monday.

Azhikkal is in the Kunnor district, around 200 km from Vallarpadam.

It would be interesting to see how will the three ports compete for volumes, as the only existing container terminal Vallarpadam continues to face various issues.

Vallarpadam port started operations in February this year, but continues to face hurdles. The port requires dredging to be carried out to widen its channel. Also, there has been constant lobbying to ease the existing cabotage policy in order to attract transhipment cargo in the true sense.

Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country by a vessel registered in another country.

“The Vallarpadam port is witnessing certain teething problems, dredging and the cabotage policy being the main issues,” the minister said.

The much talked about Vizhinjam port is also delayed on various counts, the latest being requirement of security clearance.

In the first round of bidding, the port had received only one bid, but it failed to receive security clearance as a Chinese player was part of the consortium. In the fresh bidding, two technical bids have been received and the security clearance is awaited.