The Vizhinjam International Deepwater Seaport is set to commence its Phase 2 expansion in September 2025, with completion targeted for 2028. The second phase will increase the port’s annual container handling capacity to around 4.5 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) and introduce a break-bulk berth, a tanker berth, and a bunkering facility on an extended 4 km breakwater, according to The Hindu.

Since starting commercial operations in December 2024, Vizhinjam port has handled nearly 1 million TEUs. It currently features an 800-metre-long container jetty capable of accommodating one container mother ship and two feeder vessels at a time. Phase 2 will extend the container berth to 2,000 metres, enabling the handling of three mother ships and multiple feeder vessels simultaneously.

Phase 1, costing just under Rs 90 billion, was jointly funded by the Kerala and Union governments, including through viability gap funding. The Rs 100 billion Phase 2 development will be entirely financed by Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd (APSEZ), the ports and logistics arm of the Adani Group.

The Kerala government signed a 40-year concession agreement with APSEZ in 2015 to build, operate, and transfer the port, with an option to extend for a further 20 years. Trial operations began in July 2024, when the first mother ship, San Fernando, docked at the port.

In parallel, the state is advancing port-linked industrialisation. Consultants will be engaged to develop 200 acres near Vizhinjam for logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing clusters, supported by National Highway 66 and a proposed Rs 3.6 billion cloverleaf interchange.