Tamil Nadu: Chidambaranar Port Takes Strides Towards Transshipment Hub, As PM Modi To Lay Foundation Stone For Container Terminal Project

In a significant development for Tamil Nadu's port sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the capacity expansion project at V O Chidambaranar Port on 28 February, during a public event in Thoothukudi.

The Rs 7,056 crore outer harbour container terminal project is poised to augment the port's capacity by an additional 4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Situated 550 kilometres south of Chennai and 125 kilometres north of Cape Comorin, the Chidambaranar Port is situated at 129 nautical miles from the international mainline shipping route, linking the far east with the western region.

Functioning as the tenth major port since 1974, the VO Chidambaranar (VOC) Port in Thoothukudi holds a strategic position for maritime trade.

The 12 major ports — Deendayal (Kandla), Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore (Kamarajar), Tuticorin (V O Chidambaranar), Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port — are under the administrative control of the Ministry of Shipping, and are regulated under Major Ports Authority Act, 2021.

VOC Port, the third largest container-handler among the dozen state-owned ports, currently has two container terminals in its inner harbour.

In 2023, the VOC Port Authority awarded J M Baxi Ports and Logistics Ltd the contract, following a global tender process, to convert berth number-9 into a container terminal, which will add 6 lakh TEUs to the total capacity.

The establishment of a new container terminal marks a significant stride towards transforming the Chidambaranar Port into a pivotal transshipment hub for the east coast.

The project aims to leverage India's long coastline and favourable geographic location, and strengthen India's competitiveness in the global trade arena.

In shipping parlance, transshipment, is movement of a container or cargo from one vessel (feeder vessel) to another (mainline vessel), while in transit to its final destination.

Major shipping lines have services that cover almost all the ports in the world via connecting ports. These ports are known as transshipment hubs.

At the transshipment hub port, small feeder vessels bring and pick up containers from large mother vessels (liners), creating economies of scale and lowering the freight cost.