THOOTHUKUDI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the Rs 17,167-crore Outer Harbour Project at the VO Chidambaranar Port in Thoothukudi.
The harbour infrastructure work will be taken up under the Hybrid Annuity Model at Rs 11,733 crore, and container terminal expansion (phases 1 and 2) will be done under Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) model at Rs 5,434 crore.
An official source told TNIE that the project envisages to construct breakwaters, rock bunds, wharfs, backup yard infrastructure, two container terminals with 1,000 metres of quay length each with capacity to handle 4 to 5.2 million Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs). Dredging and reclamation are also part of the project.
In order to handle large container vessels of size 18,000 TEUs to 24,000 TEUs, the draft will be increased from 16 m to 18 m, the official added. The outer harbour project will facilitate enhanced maritime trade, and thus gives scope for regional development, he said.
The project will create major new harbour infrastructure and container terminal capacity, laying the foundation for the next phase of growth, the VOC Port said in a statement.
The Union Budgets of 2013 and 2014 had the initial announcements about the Outer Harbour Project. Later, the focus shifted to the Enayam International Container Transhipment Terminal (EICTT) and the Kanniyakumari Container Terminal Project in Kanyakumari district. After both the projects failed to take off, VOC’s outer harbour project was revived in 2022.
The initial project, estimated at Rs 7,056 crore, failed to take off at tender stages twice in 2024 and 2025. The first tender was cancelled in 2024 as the applicants failed to qualify, while the second tender received no bidders and was duly cancelled in 2025.
The potential bidders had expressed concerns over the unrealistic cost estimation for dredging and the construction of breakwater by the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts (NTCPWC) under the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M).
These setbacks forced the VOC port in Thoothukudi to appoint Spain-based Tecnica Y Proyectos SA (TYPSA) to prepare a new Detailed Project Report (DPR), said sources.
Edwin Samuel, former chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said, “It will be a game-changer and boost industrial activity in the southern districts.”