Bowing to pressure from the State government, Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd (AVPPL), entrusted with operating the Vizhinjam international multi-purpose deepwater seaport project, has sourced granite from Thoothukudi and moved it through barge to the site on Thursday to complete the construction of the 3.1-km-long breakwater.
A flat-top barge, Tianjin, has arrived with 6,000 tonnes of granite from Thoothukudi and is now one nautical mile off the coast. It has been anchored to the seabed using a placement barge made available by the AVPPL. Using two excavators on the top of the barge, granite is being dumped into the deepwater contours to commence the work on the remaining portion of the breakwater. Only 565 metres of the breakwater, a critical component of the seaport, has been completed. The work had come to a standstill in April 2017.
Jayakumar, Managing Director and CEO of the Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd. (VISL), who visited the site in the afternoon, said the granite was being dumped into sea where the depth varied from 18 to 20 metres.
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The AVPPL explored the sea route as per the advice of the government after it faced hurdles to sourcing the granite locally. The port operator’s move to transport granite through sea via the Kollam port from November in bottom-opening barges had also run into rough weather. Although a 1,500-tonne barge had reached the load jetty at Kollam, teething problems were not ironed out.
30,000 tonnes tomorrow
With the sea route opening up for the AVPPL, the authorities are hopeful of expediting the work of the breakwater. A vessel MB Propel carrying 30,000 tonnes of granite has set sail from Mundra port and is expected to reach Vizhinjam by Saturday.
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After unloading the granite, Tianjin and MB Propel will proceed to Thoothukudi, 30 hours from Vizhinjam, to ship granite again.
As much as 70 lakh tonnes of granite, including 10 lakh tonnes for berth and 55 lakh tonnes for the breakwater, is needed to finish the work.