Adani Ports & SEZ plan ₹13,000-cr second phase expansion at Vizhinjam
PM Narenda Modi’s helicopter flying out of Vizhinjam International Seaport in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. PM Narendra Modi officially inaugurated the Vizhinjam Port on Friday.
| Photo Credit:
PHOTO : NIRMAL HARINDRAN / THE HINDU
Adani Ports and SEZ plan to invest ₹13,000 crore in the second phase of expansion to 5 million teu (twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) by 2028 at its newly inaugurated Vizhinjam International Deepwater Seaport at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
The port currently has a capacity of one million tonne and has handled 280 ships since it started trial operations last June and handled 6 lakh teu of transshipment containers.
Karan Adani, Managing Director, Adani Ports and SEZ, said that the Vizhinjam port’s utilisation level is currently at 90 per cent and the second phase of expansion, fully funded by the company, will be taken up soon.
Of the overall investment of ₹7,000 crore in the first phase, he said the company had invested ₹4,300 crore and will receive ₹1,200 crore in this month as part of viability gap funding.
In the second phase of expansion, the company will invest ₹13,000 crore and it will be funded by the company completely, he said.
The company will be spending ₹13,000 crore in capex this fiscal, largely in ports and allied business.
“All our businesses are generating free cash, and the debt to EBITDA has come down from 3.3 times to 1.9 times, and it will further come down to 1.5 times as new businesses start generating profit. We are not planning to raise funds, and in fact increasing cash on the books is a sort of concern,” said Adani.
On the trade tariff war initiated by the US, he said it is a sort of positive for India as the global supply chain rebalances with a tilt towards India.
Earlier inaugurating the port, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said out of 75 per cent of India’s transshipment operations were previously conducted at foreign ports, leading to significant revenue loss for the country, but this situation is now set to change.
“India’s money will now serve India, and the funds that once flowed outside the country will now generate new economic opportunities for Kerala and Vizhinjam’s people,” he said.
Prime Minister highlighted that India is advancing towards the establishment of a shipbuilding and repair cluster in Kochi.
“The chief minister of a communist party and the State’s shipping minister from Kerala acknowledging the work of private sector (Adani Group) company and willing to work with private sector itself shows the urge for economic growth across different States,” he added.
Published on May 2, 2025
