Thiruvananthapuram, June 9:
In a proud moment for India, the world’s largest container ship MSC IRINA reached Adani Group’s Vizhinjam International Seaport on Monday. The ship will remain docked at the port until Tuesday. This shows that Vizhinjam Port is ready to handle very large ships called Ultra-Large Container Vessels (ULCVs).

The MSC IRINA has a huge capacity of 24,346 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units), which makes it the biggest container ship in the world. It is 399.9 meters long and 61.3 meters wide – almost four times the size of a football field. The ship is designed to carry large volumes of containers between Asia and Europe, helping to improve international trade.

The arrival of MSC IRINA is a big achievement for the port, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 2. Vizhinjam Port is developed by Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, and has already hosted other big ships like MSC Turkiye and MSC Michel Cappellini. MSC IRINA was launched in March 2023 and started sailing in April. It flies the Liberian flag and can stack containers up to 26 levels high. It also follows modern green standards and helps reduce carbon emissions by 4%, showing that big ships can also be eco-friendly.