Cargo vessel carrying cranes was given a ‘water salute’ by the tug boats on Thursday as it became the first ship to be berthed at the under-construction Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala.

Though the ship was tugged and brought to the port on Thursday, it will be given the official welcome at a function on October 15 in which chief minister Shri Pinarai Vijayan and union minister for ports and shipping Shri. Sarbananda Sonowal

The vessel ‘Zhen Hua 15’, which began its journey from a port in Shanghai, China, at the end of August, reached the outer anchorage near Vizhinjam on Wednesday. It had made a pitstop at the Mundra port in Gujarat on its way to Vizhinjam to offload some cranes there. At the formal ceremony on October 15, the cargo atop the vessel will be unloaded at the port here.

The event on October 15 will be a milestone for the ?7,600 crore mega infrastructure project which is being implemented on a public-private partnership (PPP) model with funding from the state government, Centre, and the private partner Adani Ports Private Limited.