Thiruvananthapuram: The mothership San Fernando arrived with cargo containers at the Vizhinjam International Port. At eight o’clock the ship reached the outer area of Vizhinjam port. The ship was received with a water salute. Birthing will take place at nine o’clock. During the trial run on Friday, 1930 containers will be unloaded from the ship at Vizhinjam port.
San Fernando is the flagship of Meskin, the world’s second largest shipping company, with cargo services in more than 110 countries. The vessel is 300 meters long and 48 meters high and has a capacity of 8000 to 9000 TEU. On June 22, San Fernando left Hong Kong, China and reached Vizhinjam via Shanghai and Xiamen ports in China. After the elaborate events on 12th, the ship will leave Vizhinjam in the evening and reach Colombo, Sri Lanka the next day afternoon.
The mothership is delivered to Vizhinjam Port to check and fix all systems including automated cranes before commissioning. 23 cranes will unload the containers from the ship. It will be controlled by a navigation center running on software developed by IIT Madras. It is similar to air traffic control at airports. This center controls the anchoring and unloading of the ship. Containers unloaded from San Fernando will be transported to smaller feeder ships to other ports in the country.
