Adani Ports and SEZ has plans to sign next month the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Seaport (VISL) container terminal PPP project in India.

Adani Ports and SEZ, which had been the only bidder for the project, has also announced plans to begin construction works in November this year.

The port, which has a natural depth of 24 metres, is expected to be one of the largest ports in the world. It is envisaged to provide a total of 2000 m of quay length in three phases. The project involves the development of a container transshipment terminal with a capacity to load 600,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year initially, which can be scaled up to 1.8 million TEUs as per demand.

Once the three phases project is completed the port will add a total capacity of 5.3 million TEUs.

The project would be developed on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. It would have a contract period of 40 years which could be extended by another 20 years.

First phase of the project would cost about Rs75.25 billion (US$1,183 million).

Vizhinjam is a locality of Thiruvananthapuram city in the state of Kerala located on the Southern tip of the sub-continent. Vizhinjam is a natural port located close to the Persian Gulf-Malacca shipping lanes, an international ship route which carry almost a third of the world shipping traffic.

Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Ports and SEZ commented:

"We are very happy to be a part of this prestigious project.  It is a strategic location, being very close to the international shipping route and has the potential to become the biggest transhipment hub in the region."