ADVANTAGES OF VIZHINJAM

First let us go through the tremendous advantages of Vizhinjam , as well the opportunity provided by this project which we hope will arrest the attention of any Indian citizen .


1.The Vizhinjam port has a depth of 20 M even as close as 1 Nautical mile from the coast .
Compare with Mumbai (14m),Chennai (14m), Mangalore (10m), Tuticorin (10m) and Vishakhaptanam (14m).

2. It lies merely 10 Nautical miles from the International shipping line , close to the East-west shipping axis.
Compare with Mumbai (480 miles ) , Mangalore 240 ,Chennai 480 , Vishakhapatanam 600 .

3.It has the lowest tidal variation among all Indian ports - just 30cm ,which means the ships can enter and leave the harbor 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Hence ,there will not be any pre-berthing delays due to these natural causes -No waiting for the tides

4.It is an open sea port with out any rivers or lakes discharging into it , and has minimal littoral drift , which means after the initial dredging to form the port ,no maintenance dredging will be needed .

5. The sea bed is also formed of rocks and hence the foundation depth needed is less.

So overall, the uniqueness in location as well as other features gave No.1 ranking to Vizhinjam in terms of efficiency parameters in the study conducted by L&T Ramboll Engineering Consultants .

6. Vizhinjam is located almost central to the 5500 Km long coastline of the country, hence can be also the bridging platform for the coastal trade. With likely completion of the Sethusamudram project by 2010 , a shipping route from the East coast to the West coast of India without rounding Srilanka will become a reality . This will also facilitate a maritime linkage permitting feeder vessels right from Kolkatta in the East and Kandla in the west to converge at Vizhinjam .Then it can truly become the Gateway of India .
7.The strategic location of Vizhinjam means it could attract transshipment traffic from Bangladesh in the east ,Pakistan in the West and Sri Lanka in the South to emerge as a Mega Transshipment terminal in south Asia substantially reducing the importance of Colombo as a Transshipment Hub.
8.To and fro linkages and feeder services from South Africa ,Mozambique ,Tanzania ,Kenya and Somalia along the entire east coast of Africa across the Indian Ocean can also be established to make Vizhinjam truly a South Asian Hub. In addition ,services to Mauritius and Madagascar islands could also be established in the Indian ocean. India has traditional maritime trade with all the East African countries for centuries. Now , Vizhinjam could provide an ideal platform for revisiting the centuries old maritime trade .
9.There is tremendous local public support to the project .