THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: First to arrive at Vizhinjam port with cargo containers is the huge mothership San Fernando. This is the ship of Maersk, the second largest shipping company in the world. Maersk is a Danish company that operates cargo services in more than 110 countries.
San Fernando left Hong Kong on the 22nd of last month. The voyage is via Shanghai and Xiamen ports in China. The ship left from Xiamen for Vizhinjam on July 1 with more than 2,000 containers. It will reach the Vizhinjam open sea at 6 am on the 11th and will approach the harbour on the 12th. The ship will anchor in the center of the harbour's 800m berth. San Fernando will leave Vizhinjam at 12 noon and reach Colombo the next day at noon.
The mothership is being brought to Vizhinjam port to check and fix all systems including automated cranes before commissioning. 23 cranes will unload the containers from the ship. It will be controlled by a navigation centre running on software developed by IIT Madras. It is similar to air traffic control at airports. This centre controls the anchoring and unloading of the ship. Containers unloaded from San Fernando will be transported to smaller feeder ships to other ports in the country.
The ships of world giants including Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), APM Terminals and Hapag-Lloyd will arrive at Vizhinjam. The current 800m berth can accommodate two motherships simultaneously. The port can be commissioned as soon as electronic data interchange approval, custodian code approval and immigration check post clearance are received.
Government celebration
A grand reception will be arranged for the ship on the 12th under the leadership of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Union Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will also participate. Union Ministers Suresh Gopi and George Kurien have been invited.
San Fernando
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