Musings: Bypass shipping route from Vizhinjam to Chennai, Vizag, Pradip and Kolkata seaports
By Thomas Kannamala
WITH the ceremonial berthing of the container ship San Fernando at Vizhinjam seaport on July 12, 2024, it is set to become a busy hub of global mega-ships. Consequently, hundreds of feeder ships from all over Indian Ports and vicinity are bound to crowd the approach routes to this Port from the international shipping routes in the years to come.
It would be a good idea to ease this traffic jam creating the much-discussed Sethu Samudram bypass sea route. This project was approved by the BJP government during the Vajpayee ministry and the Tamil Nadu government, but preliminary works stopped after a stay from the Supreme Court.
My three old articles on this subject are below:-
Some fancy thoughts on Vizhinjam Port inauguration
With the formal inauguration of Kerala's international Vizhinjam Port on Oct.15, 2023, here is a fancy scheme for a holiday mood sail from Trivandrum to Calcutta in a leisurely cost-effective way.
The Gurudev Express train to Calcutta from Trivandrum takes about 44 hours for this 2583 km run, logging an average speed of 58 kmph. Modern-day passenger ships have an average cruise speed of 23 to 34 nautical miles (37 to 55 kmph), and can cover the Vizhinjam - Calcutta 1098 NM (2033 km) sea route almost within the same train time, and at a lesser fare.
The scheme may be extended to other port cities including Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Odisha and Port Blair as well.
This is likely to remain only a fancy scheme, as the SethuSamudram project to deepen the stretch of the sea near Tuticorin for the passage of bigger ships has been dropped – thanks to politico-religious sentiment reasons. Conceived well before the Suez Canal, this project was revived after feasibility studies of international maritime experts by the Tamil Nadu government. The A B Vajpayee-led Union Government had accepted it in 1996.
Bypass sea route map to Chennai.
SETHU CANAL PROJECT - ALTERNATIVE TO TUTICORIN-CHENNAI-MANGALORE HIGHWAY
Cut air pollution & fuel bill: The `Green Corridor -2’ freight shipping service of Kerala, inaugurated on June 30, 2021, connecting Kochi, Calicut and Azhikkal Ports on Kerala’s west coast is expected to remove hundreds of container and cargo lorries from the road.
This could drastically reduce cargo movement on the 300 km road in Kerala besides lowering air pollution, save fuel and goods transport cost. In the future, just as they do on Konkan Railways, cargo lorries could be directly rolled in and out of these freighter ships for quick loading and delivery of goods on these Corridor destinations.
A similar `Green Corridor’ could be created between Kanyakumari – Tuticorin-Chennai-Paradip-Visakhapatinam and Calcutta (1274 NM) on the eastern coast eliminating thousands of trucks from the 2361 km road. This can be achieved by cutting a 20 km canal near Pamban bridge in Ramnad district of Tamil Nadu. It will drastically reduce the country’s fuel bill also, as a gallon of diesel can move only one tonne cargo on the road, while 10 tonnes can be moved by train and 20 tonnes through the waterway. Now, all ships between India’s west coast and east coast ports go around Sri Lanka (two days extra travel time) because of the shallow sea bed near Pamban bridge.
Travails of a junked Plane
A junked Air India A-320 Airbus is on a 1300 km long haul by road to Hyderabad from the Trivandrum airport hangar. This aircraft of 123 ft length, 117 ft wing span and a laden weight of 83 tonne has been broken and being carried in four huge trailers. Within hours of departure from the Airport hangar on November 02, its wing tip hit a KSRTC bus, causing injuries to the driver and several passengers. Hardly 100 km away on Nov 07, another trailer carrying the Jet body, got trapped on a narrow bridge causing half a day delay, and roadblock. The convoy is expected to cover the trip via Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states in a month's time. (No guarantee, as it could cover only 100 km in a week).
It could have covered the distance of about 698 nautical miles (1293 KM) by sea (Trivandrum – Kanyakumari-Kakkinada) in two days without any hitch…..if the Sethu Canal had become a reality. I have been campaigning for this project for nearly 30 years.
Another in-depth article on this subject Myth vs Science at https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article30192957.ece Sethu Canal
