- Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Shipping and Road Transport & Highways and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation on December 12, 2018 flagged off the first container mainline vessel from VoC Port (Tuticorin Port) along with Shri Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu.
- At present containers from Tuticorin to Far East countries viz Malaysia, Singapore, China and Hong Kong are transited by the feeder vessels to Colombo where they are further connected to the mother vessel . With Mainline call being done directly at Tuticorin, there will be saving on account of the transshipment cost. EXIM trade will benefit and there will be a saving of approximately 50 USD per container as handling of container at Colombo will not be required. This service will give benefit to the importers and exporters in terms of saving transshipment cost and transit time.
- With the strategic location of the Port being so close to the East West Trade route and a draft of 16 m, the Port is poised to attract more mainline vessels and has the potential to become a transshipment hub of South India.
- In the last four years, Tuticorin Port has made investments to the tune of Rs. 1,500 Crore towards improvement of infrastructure with the focus to unlock efficiencies at the Port as well as add capacity to reduce logistics cost for EXIM and domestic trade under Sagarmala.
