Plans for having a shipyard in Thiruvananthapuram district, it appears, have not been abandoned completely.
The integrated master plan for the Vizhinjam international container transshipment terminal (ICTT) released here on Thursday has left an option for establishing a shipyard at Vizhinjam if the container traffic at the proposed port does not meet expectations.
“In the current master plan, a shipyard facility is not shown due to the lack of required waterfront area and backup land for proper establishment of the shipyard facility. However, (the) master plan provides a provision for such a facility if the container transshipment business is lower than forecast. In that case, the proposed shipyard/ship repair facility can be planned in the area earmarked for Phase-3 container development, plus the additional area south of it,” says the master plan prepared by Aecom for state government company Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd. Ports Minister K Babu handed over the master plan to the Chief Minister on Thursday.
In 2011, the Cochin Shipyard Ltd had submitted a report to the state government saying that Vizhinjam has the ‘potential’ for a shipyard. But it requires a minimum of 100 acres with 1.5 kilometres of waterfront area, which was considered impractical and the shipyard proposal was put on the back burner. The proposed seaport, which is to be constructed in three phases, has been designed in such a manner that it will be able to accommodate the largest container vessels ever to sail the high seas.
The port will be able to berth vessels of 18,000 TEU capacity. Once the three phases are completed, the port will be able to handle 28.2 lakh TEUs of container traffic and 120 cruise vessels annually.