NEW DELHI: India on Friday registered its presence on the global maritime map with the inauguration of its first deepwater multipurpose seaport at Vizhinjam in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the Vizhinjam port, built at a cost of $1.04 billion under a public-private partnership with business conglomerate the Adani Group and the Kerala government holding the majority stake.

Late last year, the port began limited operations and received MSC Turkiye — one of the world’s largest cargo ships with a capacity of more than 24,000 containers — making it the first port in India to handle a vessel of that size.

The port is to be built in four phases by 2028 at a total cost of 180 billion Indian rupees ($2.11 billion). In full-page advertisements in several national and local dailies a day before the inauguration, the Adani Group — considered close to Modi — said the port is only 10 nautical miles from global shipping routes and will have an annual capacity of up to 5 million TEUs (20ft equivalent units).

TEU is a unit of measurement used to quantify the capacity of container ships and terminals. It represents the volume of a standard 20-foot shipping container and is a common way to express the cargo-carrying capacity of vessels and facilities.

“The existing capacity of this transshipment hub will triple in the coming time,” Modi said in his inaugural address.

“So far 75 per cent of the Indian transshipment used to take place outside the country. This used to cause huge revenue loss to the country.

“Now this situation is going to change.

“Now the money of this country will be utilized for the service of the nation. The money which used to go outside will now bring new economic opportunities for the people of Kerala and Vizhinjam.”

India has 13 major ports and 217 non-major ports, but none of them are deepwater multipurpose transshipment ports, which include terminals where cargo containers are shifted from one vessel to another before reaching their final destination. With India until now lacking infrastructure to handle large vessels, close to 75 percent of its transshipment cargo went through external ports like Colombo, Singapore and Jebel Ali, UAE.

Industry bodies see a big opportunity with the opening of the Vizhinjam port.

“It’s a mother port. One of the kinds in the country. It is a fully automated port, and the port can handle any ship, the biggest in the world. It is hardly 10 nautical miles from the international sea route. It’s very conveniently set. It’s a God-given gift to the country,” S.N. Raghuchandran Nair, president of the Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Arab News.

“Cargos originating from this place will cut down the time by almost two weeks, it is also going to save $600 to $1,000 per container in view of the handling charges and various things. This is going to be a big saver. You will save 2,000 to 3,000 crore rupees ($2.5 million to $3.5 million) by way of foreign exchange every year once this port opens fully.”

The Vizhinjam port has been controversial from the beginning and faced protests from fishermen and environmentalists over displacement and harm to coastal and marine life.

Kerala journalist K.A. Shaji made a documentary, “Stolen Shorelines,” highlighting the displacement of fishermen and environmental damage.

He questions the need for the port.

“Actually, there is a big port in Colombo and international movements of freight are through Singapore, Dubai and Colombo, there is no need for the big vessels to come to Vizhinjam, which is in a corner of Kerala and it has to take a deviation from the main route,” Shaji told Arab News.

“I feel in the highly competitive world of international freight movement Vizhinjam can do very little, but environmental and socio-economic costs are very high.”

He said thousands of families have been affected by the port, directly and indirectly.

“Directly more than 450 fishermen’s families have been impacted and indirectly over 4,500 families have been impacted as coastal erosion and change of the direction of the waves by the impact of the project destroyed most of the houses and livelihood.”

KARACHI: The governor of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, Kamran Tessori, has pledged to cover the medical expenses of a paralyzed Pakistani teenager who was separated from his Indian mother amid escalating tensions between the two countries, his office said on Thursday, following Arab News’ coverage of the boy’s story.

Seventeen-year-old Muhammad Ayan was being treated at New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital after a spinal injury he sustained during a 2023 gunfight between police and criminals in Karachi. He and his family were forced to leave India after the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists. India accused Pakistan of backing the assault. Islamabad has strongly denied the allegation.

In the wake of the attack, both countries ordered each other’s nationals to leave, exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, and imposed diplomatic restrictions, leaving many families stranded or divided. Among them was Ayan’s family. His Indian mother, Nabeela, was unable to leave with them. The family returned to Karachi while she remained in New Delhi.

“Arab News is doing a good job. You should highlight the problems of the people and keep pointing toward the solution — which you people keep doing — then the problems move toward a solution. Ayan’s case is an example of this. You pointed it out, and we are trying now,” Tessori told Arab News on Friday.

“If Ayan’s treatment is not possible in Pakistan, then we are also contacting different countries to see where this treatment is possible. God willing, we will get it done wherever it is possible.”

The Pakistani official urged India to put an end to its “war mania,” pointing to several other cases such as Ayan’s. There has been no immediate comment from the Indian side on Ayan’s case.

Arab News published a report earlier this week highlighting Ayan’s separation from his mother and the abrupt end to his treatment in India, which prompted Tessori to take action.

“She was separated from us while crying, and we also came here with great difficulty, crying,” Ayan told Arab News, choking back tears.

Ayan’s father, Muhammad Imran, married Nabeela — his maternal cousin and a New Delhi resident — 18 years ago. She had been living in Pakistan on a visa that was periodically renewed, without ever obtaining Pakistani nationality. After the attack, the suspension of visa services invalidated the family’s 45-day Indian medical visa, and Nabeela was left behind.

Imran said that he had spent every last rupee in hopes that his son would walk again. But rising bilateral tensions made the family fearful while in India.

“I told them, ‘I’m married (to her),’ I pleaded, cried, and showed a lot of humility,” he said of his conversations with Indian authorities. “But they said, ‘No, write an exit and leave.’”

For Ayan, the trauma of paralysis was compounded by the emotional shock of being separated from his mother.

“I went for treatment with hope, but that hope shattered because of the accident and the fact that my mother couldn’t come with us,” he said. “I was completely separated from a mother’s love. We were far apart; it made me cry.”

Kashmir has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. The region is divided between the two countries, though both claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory.

Since 1989, several Kashmiri groups have carried out attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of supporting these groups — a charge Islamabad denies, insisting it offers only diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris.

Ayan’s father thanked Arab News for highlighting his family’s plight.

“They conveyed our words to higher officials, because of which Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori took notice,” he said on Friday.

“I am also very thankful to him, who promised to have my son treated anywhere in the world.”