Chennai, Mar 6 (IANS): Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan on Tuesday launched a special purpose vehicle (SPV) Kanniyakumari Port Ltd that would build a major port in Kanniyakumari district, said an official.

The Kanniyakumari Port Ltd is a three-way joint venture between V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Kamarajar Port Ltd and Chennai Port Trust, the official told IANS.

The launch of the company took place in Nagercoil in Kanniyakumari district.

The projected schedule is to make the new port operational by 2023-2024.

The new port is envisaged to have a capacity to handle 6.25 million TEUs per annum, which could be improved to 10 million TEUs, so that the scale and size of the new port is comparable to the leading container ports in the world, the company said.

The Central government under the Sagarmala project proposed to develop a new major port in Kanniyakumari district leveraging the availability of deeper depth of 20 metre closer to the shoreline and in proximity to the East-West International Shipping route.

Currently, there are no ports in south India that have sufficient draft and scale to match global cargo handling efficiencies to function as a transshipment hub.

In the absence of such a port, about four million TEUs of India-destined containers are being transshipped at international ports like Colombo, Singapore and Kelang.

Development of a transshipment port in Kanniyakumari district will immensely benefit both India's port sector and India's export-import trade acting as an enabler for Make in India programme.