Though the Chinese ship carrying container-handling cranes is allowed to dock at the under construction Vizhinjam International Seaport developed by Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Limited (AVPPL), the Chinese crew on-board the ship are not allowed to sign off in India, nor allowed to come ashore.
According to sources, the ship that has been waiting at the outer anchorage of Vizhinjam since Wednesday night will be allowed to berth only on October 14, a day ahead of the reception to be accorded by the State administration to the ship and its consignment.
It is learnt that there are around a dozen Chinese crew on-board the project cargo vessel, who were not given permission by the Centre government to sign off here or come ashore. The crew will remain on the ship during the entire time of unloading the consignment. After the engineers from China were not granted visas, a delegation of service engineers brought by the Chinese company from Mumbai, mostly comprising Indians, would coordinate the installation and testing works on the cranes at the berth here, sources said.
It will take months for these engineers to complete the installation, testing, and commissioning of the equipment brought from China. An order for eight Rail Mounted Quay Cranes (RMQC) and 24 Rail Mounted Gantry Cranes (RMGC) was placed by the port developer here to Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company Limited (ZPMC) in China in 2018. The first shipment of cranes reached Vizhinjam International Seaport on Wednesday. Three more lots are expected to be dispatched by the company in November.
Upon completion, the Vizhinjam International Seaport is expected to cater to 75% of India’s container transshipment needs, with the port having an installed capacity to handle container vessels of up to 24,000 TEU.
The first phase of the over ₹7,500 crore port project is scheduled to be commissioned in May 2024. The container-handling cranes are brought to the port ahead of the first phase of the commissioning. The strategically located port closer to the east-west and far-east-Gulf route is hardly 10 nautical miles away from the international shipping route.
The work on the port, which missed several deadlines in the past, has reached an overall progress of 65.46 % now.
