India, May 2 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the Vizhinjam seaport in Kerala's capital city of Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.

Built by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), the project is touted as India's first deep-water dedicated container transhipment port that can significantly boost India's presence in global shipping.

Vizhinjam port is developed using a landlord model with a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) component on a design, build, finance, operate, and transfer basis.

The Rs.8,867 crore project, with an annual capacity of up to 5 million TEUs, began operations last July and handled about 250 container ships so far. Sources also told Bloomberg that the project is expected to get more than Rs...