The arrival of a dredger of the Adani Group at the Kollam port on Saturday opens prospects of Kollam becoming a source port for the construction of the Vizhinjam port.
There are chances of sourcing granite boulders required for constructing the breakwater for the Vizhinjam port from Kollam.
The dredging gadgets that arrived in the vessel will be assembled and fabricated into the dredger by technicians from the group to suit the dredging requirements for the Vizhinjam port. It will be converted to a deep dredger capable of dredging to a depth of 25 metres.
Ports Director P.I. Shiekh Pareeth, who inspected the vessel, said the dredger was brought to Kollam as the port had the required depth to accommodate the vessel and also the suitable environment for assembling the dredging gadgets. The dredger would be taken to Vizhinjam on Wednesday.
The material dredged from Vizhinjam would be beneficially used for reclamation of new land to house the wharf, stacking yard, and container terminal of the Vizhinjam port, he said.
Mr. Pareeth endorsed the view that the development opened prospects of Kollam becoming a source port for the construction of the Vizhinjam port.
He said for constructing the 2.1 km Tangasseri breakwater in Kollam, a granite quarry at Veliyam was taken on lease by the Harbour Engineering Department (HED).
Only one-fourth of the resource (about 10 lakh tonnes of granite) from that quarry was utilised for the construction of the Tangasseri breakwater.
The lease was still alive and this resource could be tapped for the Vizhinjam port breakwater. If that happened, boulders could be shipped to Vizhinjam from the Kollam port, Mr. Pareeth said.
He also said the Tangasseri Breakwater Project had a yard for manufacturing reinforced armour blocks also known as tetrapods used for the construction of breakwaters.
That facility could be utilised and the tetrapods could also be shipped to Vizhinjam from Kollam.
