The Hindu Business Line : Four firms evince interest in Kochi Port project

The Port Chairman, Dr Jacob Thomas, expressed the confidence that the establishment of project will become a reality on account of the enthusiasm shown by the parties.

Kochi , Jan 12

THE global notification floated by the Kochi Port for its international container transhipment terminal project is gaining momentum with four reputed container terminal operators purchasing the request for qualification (RFQ) directly from the port.

The firms which have shown interest in the project are Dubai Ports International, Maersk A/S, Mumbai, ACT Shipping Ltd, Gandhidham, and Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Chennai.

Since the global invitation was notified on January 1, the port Web site had received 30 hits from interested parties for the project. The Port Chairman, Dr Jacob Thomas, expressed the confidence that the establishment of ICTT will become a reality on account of the enthusiasm shown by the parties.

It is hoped that a good majority of the firms, which have downloaded the RFQ documents, would submit their applications for short listing by the due date of January 15, he said in a statement issued here.

As per the current schedule, the port hopes to award the work on the Greenfield project by March 31. The receipt of the documents from the bidders is expected on January 15. The finalisation of the bidders will be completed on January 17 and issuing participation documents to bidders on February 4. The documents will scheduled to be submitted to the port on March 5 and the project will be open for price bids on March 10. The Board of Trustees is scheduled to approve the project by March 15 and the Union Government approval will be sought by March 17, the statement said.

Prior to going for the global notification for the fourth time for the project, the port officials had held several interactive meetings with prospective bidders to take their views and suggestions about the tender process. The feed back received from the parties were discussed in the board and accordingly the request for proposal documents were modified, the Port Deputy Chairman, Mr A.Janardhana Rao, said.

The common user infrastructure facilities that are essential and vital for the establishment of the project will be provided by the port which included deepening and widening of the port channels at an investment of Rs 464 crore, national highway connectivity to Vallarpadam at Rs 263 crore and rail connectivity to Vallarpadam at a cost of Rs 125 crore. These proposals have been submitted to the Union Government for providing budgetary support under viability gap funding, Mr Rao said.

In order to review the project, a monitoring committee under the chairmanship of the Shipping Secretary has been constituted.

As a first stage of the implementation of the project, the Deputy Chairman said that the draught at the existing Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal is to be increased to 12.5 metres when the same is handed over to the operator. The estimated cost of this dredging is about Rs 33 crore and it will be carried out this year itself. For meeting the immediate requirement of additional stacking area, the port is taking up the expansion of container parking yard at RGCT by extending the existing track and strengthening the pavements which will lead to adequate number of ground slots to commensurate with expected increase in traffic, he said.