Enayam Port

Tamil Research Institute
RAPID TECHNO-ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY REPORT FOR
DEVELOPMENT OF COLACHEL PORT AT TAMILNADU
FINAL REPORT
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. PROPOSED PORT DEVELOPMENT
The Colachel Port Project has been an important objective to Tamil Nadu and Indian Government for over 20
years. Two of the main reports written about this are the following:
• Detailed Feasibility Study on Colachel Port, India (November 2000) by Construction Industry Development
Board of Malaysian Government for Tamil Nadu Government. The report analyses the traffic and market,
and proposes a port near Manavalakurichi for container traffic only.
The consultant presents a well protected port, but with some other problems like a difficult and expensive
dredging on rocky soil, a river inside the basin which would generate the need for continued maintenance
dredging, and very long and costly breakwaters.
• Techno Economic Feasibility Study for Colachel Port (July 2010) by i-maritime Consultancy Private Ltd. for
Tamil Nadu Maritime Board (Ministry for Highways and Port). The report analyses the viability of
establishing a muti-purpose commercial port, concluding that the port would only be viable if a captive
thermal power plant is set up.
I-maritime proposes a port on the Manavalakurichi shoreline which, from a technical point of view, has
certain issues without easy solution (poorly protected from the southern swell, container terminals onshore
and small berths, large and difficult dredging and big impact to the beach dynamics and shape).
Although the name of the project refers to Colachel as the site of the port, this study covers all the west coast of
Tamil Nadu state, along the Arabian Sea, from Cape Comorin –Kanyakumari– to the border between the states
of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
This coast is composed of long beaches separated from each other by small headlands, where fishing villages
such as Colachel, Muttom or Enayam are located.
To enable fishing activities, quite a number of rubble mound breakwater structures have been constructed taking
advantage of the emerging rocks on the coast, creating a well protected beach and avoiding the littoral drift and
scouring erosion of huge wave action during the southwest monsoon period (May-September).
Figure 1. Rubble mound breakwater near Colachel.
Besides, during the last years, two fishing ports have been developed. The first one in Colachel itself –which is
being upgraded at the present time–and the other in Muttom – a private fishing harbour.
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