How Rajiv Gandhi's Visit Turned Vizhinjam From A Fishing Village To Deepwater Port

NDTV

09-06-2025

A popular phrase in India, 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari', has become a transformational reality. Just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation Jammu & Kashmir's Vande Bharat train and inaugurated the world's highest rail bridge over Chenab, today, in Kerala, 75 km from Kanyakumari, the Vizhinjam deepwater seaport received the world's biggest container vessel, MSC Irina.
Projects in India have long gestation periods. The Kashmir rail link had been envisaged by the British. The planning for it began in 1983-84 and has finally taken shape now.
Similarly, the idea for a deepwater sea port in Vizhinjam germinated in the days of the Travancore State in the British era. It was revived during a visit by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi - who incidentally had gone there to inaugurate houses for fishermen - in 1985.
Veteran Congress Chief Minister Karunakaran pushed the project in 1991. Further thrust came during the regime of Oomen Chandy of the Congress, in whose tenure the Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd was started in December 2015. The completion took place under CPI(M) Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in May 2025.
A Rocky Journey
The project weathered several political storms, including stiff opposition from the Sonia-Rahul Gandhi family, who were opposed to the choice of the Adani group by the Kerala government (headed by Congress leader Oomen Chandy) for implementing the project on the DBFOT (Develop, Build, Finance, Operate, Transfer) model. Regimes changed in Thiruvananthapuram, with both CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) opting for the Adani group, though both sides at several points had a slugfest over the project as well.
Work began in 2015, and in May 2025, PM Modi inaugurated this prestigious project of the Kerala government.
This writer had accompanied Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on some of his trips across the country and was present when he visited Vizhinjam on September 6, 1985, on what was the second day of his three-day sojourn to Kerala. The visit was to study the implementation of various welfare schemes.
We reached Vizhinjam in the twilight hours. It was a sleepy fishing village that traced its history to the second century BCE, a fact well-known today thanks to the discovery of pottery finds by archaeologists. Vizhinjam apparently had been part of the Indian Ocean trade route in ancient times.
'Something Is Fishy'
The reason for Mr. Gandhi's visit was to review a housing project for fishermen. Rows of newly constructed houses were being shown to him. He noticed that the houses were unoccupied. On enquiry, it emerged that tensions within the fishermen community, which comprised people belonging to Muslim and Latin Christian communities, had spilt over from fishing rights to allotment of houses.
Mr. Gandhi was furious. ' Kuchh to gadbad hai '(something is fishy), he muttered. Chief Minister Karunakaran, who was also the minister for fisheries, gestured to an official, who said the allottees had not moved in. The Prime Minister told former Chief Minister A.K. Anthony, who was accompanying him in his capacity as party general secretary, 'Anthony, can you locate an allottee in the crowd? I want to talk to him.' The bluff had been called. The incident was televised on Doordarshan that evening.
While Mr Gandhi was infuriated, an unexpected advantage of the visit was a discussion on the history and potential of Vizhinjam. The ball was set rolling.
Why Vizhinjam Is Important
Vizhinjam, though a project of the Kerala government, is a port of national significance. It is the only transhipment terminal in the Indian subcontinent. Being the pioneer deepwater transportation hub, it contributes to revolutionising India's blue economy.
The port has a natural depth of 20 metres and is located strategically within 10 nautical miles off the international shipping lane. Before the commissioning of Vizhinjam, India had no deepwater port, and it had to depend on ports abroad, primarily Colombo (Sri Lanka), to dock Ultra-Large Container Vessels (UCLVs); cargo containers were transported to smaller vessels and shipped to Indian ports. Before Vizhinjam, India thus had to forgo an estimated revenue of about $220 million (approximately Rs 1,990 crore) annually due to this transhipment.
The natural depth of 20 metres also ensures that Vizhinjam will not have to spend on seasonal dredging. This, too, will contribute to the health of the blue economy.
A New Era In India's Blue Economy
With the docking of MSC Irina, which coincides with the first anniversary of the Modi 3.0 regime, a new era is being ushered into India's blue economy.
MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company, a Swiss-based container shipping giant) Irina is the biggest container vessel and can carry more than 24,300 standard 20-foot shipping containers stacked up to 22 decks. It measures 399.99 meters in length and 61.3 meters in beam. With the docking of Irinam, Vizhinjam will be competing with international ports like Colombo, Salalah (Oman), Jebel Ali (Dubai-UAE), as well as Singapore.
Vizhinjam's strategic location in the international shipping route connects Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Far East. It is proximate to the East-West shipping axis, which accounts for a substantial quantum of global maritime trade.
While Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd., which is tasked with running the port, has developed its infrastructure, road and rail connectivity to the place, located 20 km from Thiruvananthapuram on National Highway 66, is still under development. Nonetheless, Vizhinjam will bring substantial savings as it removes India's dependency on ports abroad.