Vizhinjam Seaport Site Receives Big Cargo Ship

Introduction

Ever since the start of work for the Vizhinjam International Seaport off the coast of Trivandrum, the dredging work is going on, digging the soil from the sea to the shore through a set of pipes. So far, the dredging equipment employed was small and the amount of soil from the sea removed was less, triggering the anxiety of delay in the commissioning of the port, ahead of the start of work for similar seaport at Colachel in Tamil Nadu about 30 kilometers from the seaport site. In order to offset the fear and to speed up the sea-digging work the Adani Group has brought a bigger and powerful dredger to the Vizhinjam site. There is a lot of talk about this event in the media circles. In this blog, we will see what this new machine is capable of and how it was brought to the Vizhinjam shore.

Semi-submersible Heavy Load Carrier

Since the beginning of work for the Vizhinjam International Seaport, the authorities are able to finish only about 20% of dredging work. Hence the promoter of this project – Adani Group – has brought in bigger and powerful dredger to the Vizhinjam shore. This powerful machine has come riding pillion on a semi-submersible heavy load carrier ship. Since the current sea depth is not enough for this bigger ship, the authorities have docked it in the deep-sea. The name of this ship is MV Combi Dock 1. This ship is can take in adequate measure of water and submerge partly in the sea. When the carrier ship gets partially submerged in the sea, the dredger that is on it starts floating on the sea water. The driver of the machine can power it on and propel it to the sea. After the unloading of the dredger machine, the carrier ship can drain the sea water to come back to the sea surface fully.  The crew members of the carrier are currently planning to bring it still closer to the site before offloading the dredger machine. This is mainly used to transport the heavy load machines like big dredgers to various places.

Powerful Dredgers

The project promoter Adani Group has decided to bring the heavy-duty dredgers to further dig the continental shelf just under sea to make room for the docking of heavy and long container ships in the future. After the initial level of dredging, the team has found the rocks on the continental shelf. Hence, they have to bring in powerful dredgers to further dig the shelf near the shore. Moreover, the authorities are planning to use these powerful machines to dig big holes on the rock surface to pile in strong concrete blocks so that they can construct other structures over them. By constructing the powerful structures on the ocean-front, the authorities want to safeguard the land recovered from the sea from ocean currents and powerful sea waves. After securing the land recovered from the sea, the authorities are going to fill it with soil brought from other areas to bring it to the shore level.