Kerala's Department of Ports has announced that five teams have been shortlisted to develop the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Seaport (VISL).

Vizhinjam is a locality of Thiruvananthapuram city in the Indian state of Kerala.

The five teams shortlisted are the following:

• Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd;
• A consortium of Hyundai and Concast Infratech Ltd;
• ESSAR Ports;
• A consortium of Srei Infrastructure and OHL;
• Adani Group.

The project will be developed on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. The project cost is estimated at US$640 million

The draft concession agreement has been prepared with the help of the legal and financial advisors, HSA Advocates and Ernst and Young. The draft will be issued along with the Requests for Proposal (RFP) to firms once the project gets clearance.

The government of Kerala is applying for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) from the Central government.

Initially, the state government had issued separate tenders for selecting the private partner to operate the asset and construction of the port. 

The port will be one of the largest ports in the world. The port is envisaged to provide in total 2000m of quay length in three phases and is designed to cater primarily for containers transshipment.