Connects International Container Transshipment Terminal – Vallarpadam With The Main Land
Rail Vikas Nigam Constructed a railway line to the Vallarpadam terminal with a total length of 8.86 km, in which 4.62 km runs above the Vembanad Lake. This bridge has become the longest railway bridge in India. A railway station and electric substation was also constructed at Edappally. The Vallarpadam Port Railway station has been constructed by the Dubai Ports World.
The soil conditions were a challenge that RVNL engineers overcame with great élan. The bridges have been built on 1.2-diametre piles driven to an average depth of 55 metres. The total pile length is 65,000 metres.
Besides, 11,700 tonnes of reinforced steel; 58,000 tonnes of cement; 99,000 cubic metres of metal aggregates; 73,500 cubic metres of sand; 1,27,000 cubic metres of concrete work and 1,54,308 cubic metres of earth work went into building the new railway link.
The Kochi International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal, is a container trans-shipment facility which is part of the Kochi Port. It is the only trans-shipment port in India, and is situated in Kochi, in the state of Kerala. Being constructed in three stages, the first phase of the terminal was commissioned on 11 Feb 2011.
This can handle cargo up to one million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) per annum. On completion of the third phase, the terminal will be able to handle 4 million TEUs of cargo per annum. The terminal is presently being operated by the Dubai Ports World (DPW), which will operate it for 30-years after which the control will come back to the Cochin Port Trust.
Vallarpadam Container Terminal is the only Transshipment port in India situated in Kochi. It is billed as the largest single-operator container terminal in the country. Now onwards mother vessels which can carry up to 140000 containers can reach Indian cost, previously it has been done through Colombo or Singapore port. As the first phase is opened now it is expected to handle around 700,000 containers this year itself. The length of the berth is 600 m which will be extended to 1800 m in the 2nd phase, which then will become the largest terminal operated by a single operator.