THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One should look at Mundra port in Gujarat to know how the fishing village of Vizhinjam and the capital district will change with the arrival of the port. The mangrove-covered Mundra, which had a population of less than a thousand people, is now a large municipality. Mundra Port has become a milestone of Gujarat's development in its quarter of a century. Annual tax revenue of 32000 crore rupees, road, rail and air facilities, fifty large industries and employment for more than one and a half lakh people.
Adani's own growth has been fueled by Mundra port. Adani is the port king with ports in Israel, Colombo and Australia. Therefore, Vizhinjam is seen with great anticipation. 'Vizhinjam International Seaport Thiruvananthapuram' will be operational in the month of May.
Among the 12 major ports in the country, Mundra, the only private port, handles 33 per cent of sea cargo. 155 million metric tonnes of cargo passes through Mundra annually. Mundra has two oil berths handling four lakh containers. 44 ships can be berthed simultaneously in 28 berths across 10 terminals. There are 40 huge cranes to unload goods.
Adani is more hopeful about Vizhinjam than Mundra. That is because Mundra is only 17 meters deep and oilships with a depth of 20 meters cannot be berthed. Those oil ships are stopped in the open sea and the cargo is unloaded through pipes. Colombo is also 17 meters deep, but Vizhinjam is 24 meters deep. Moreover, it lasts all year round and does not need to be deepened. It means that there is no ship in the world that cannot be brought close to Vizhinjam. It is estimated that if Mundra paid 2.25 lakh crore rupees to the exchequer in 25 years, Vizhinjam would not need even 10 years to pay that much. At present, most of the big ships are going to Colombo, Jebel Ali in Dubai, etc. without coming to India. Vizhinjam can compensate for this deficiency also. That is the hope of Adani and the country.
What Mundra port has given to the nation