| What is the most interesting project in southern state Kerala for the Ambani brothers?
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| It is the $1 billion deepwater international seaport and container transshipment terminal at Vizhinjam near the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram which has caught the fancy of the Ambani brothers.
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| Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries and Anil's ADA Group sent their senior vice-presidents to attend the investors' meet organised by Kerala government on April 17 prior to the floating of global tenders for the proposed project.
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| Apart from the Ambani brothers, several foreign and domestic companies have evinced interest in the development of the deepwater transshipment terminal.
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| The list included overseas majors like shipping giant Maersk of Denmark, Alberg Ports of Australia, Japan's Nissin Corporation, UK's Beckett Rankine, Dubai Ports World, Cyan Holdings BV of the Netherlands and Ranhill Group of Companies, Malaysia.
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| From India, the PSU shipping company Shipping Corporation of India, Mundra Port & SEZ, Ashok Leyland Project Services, Emmar MGF, Essar Constructions, Zoom Developers and JM Baxi were among those who attended the meeting. The meet was attended by a consortium comprising US-based Obocon Inc, Kuwait's KGL Transport, Indonesia's Astra international and Unity Infrastructure of Mumbai as well.
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| "The investor meet was grand success. The state has taken feedback from international players. According to their requests, the state will give an update of the container traffic estimate. Kerala government is all set to float a global tender inviting expression of interest for the proposed project and it should hit by May end," said a top government official. The Vizhinjam terminal was seen as a crucial project for the Indian shipping sector.
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| The proposed site was just 10 nautical miles from a major international shipping route.
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| In addition, this site had a natural depth of 20 metres as close as one nautical mile from the coastline. The high natural depth meant minimum capital dredging would be required and thus the project would enjoy lower costs.
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| For instance, the country's largest container port at present, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), was all set to dredge its shipping channel to 14 metres against current 12.5 metres.
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| More depth of the shipping channel would enable the port to handle bigger vessels.
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| The Vizhinjam terminal, once built, would be designed to handle container vessels up to 8000 TEU in Phase I and 10000 TEU and 12000 TEU in the second and third phases.
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| L Radhakrishnan, CEO of Vizhinjam International Seaport, and secretary in the Kerala government, said, "The proposed seaport has the capability to handle over 6 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers shortly. In Phase I, the seaport will be able to handle 1.1 million TEUs of container."
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| He added, "We have got excellent response from domestic and international majors for developing this transshipment terminal. The project is structured as a public private partnership (PPP) on build operate and transfer (BOT) basis," adds Radhakrishnan. The Kerala government was in the process of re-tendering for the project following the central government's refusal to give security clearance to two Chinese companies which had won the mandate to construct this terminal earlier with Mumbai-based Zoom Developers. IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation was acting as advisor for the proposed port project while the detailed techno-commercial feasibility study was conducted by L&T Ramboll and Rogge Marine Consulting of Germany.
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| The interest of domestic and international majors in Vizhinjam was natural.
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| "A container shipment economics study says that Vizhinjam will cut down the cost of operations compared to other ports for containers from and to from hinterland locations as well as main locations," industry analysts pointed out. "Reliance Industries can use Vizhinjam as strong base for its mega retail network. For Anil Ambani, Vizhinjam port would be strong link to evacuate cargo with his container trains. Anil has already secured container train operating licence," they added.
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| Besides, National Highway (NH) 47 and the NH-47 Bypass were in close proximity, with the bypass just 3km away and the NH 10km away. The national rail network was less than 12km from the proposed port site.
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| The NH-47 connected Thiruvananthapuram to Salem via Coimbatore and to Kanyakumari on the other side.
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| At Kanyakumari, NH-47 would connect to the proposed North-South corridor between Kashmir and Kanyakumari being implemented under the National Highway Development Project (NHDP) of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). A new alignment connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kanyakumari had recently been proposed by NHAI.
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| The state capital's city limit was just 7km north of the proposed port and this was an advantage as the city offered good quality human resources and supporting social infrastructure. |
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