The Hindu Business Line : Box transhipment terminal — Kochi Port board clears draft agreement for bidding process

THE meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Kochi Port has unanimously cleared the draft licence agreement for ICTT (international container transhipment terminal) and authorised the Chairman to go ahead with the further bidding process.

Simultaneously, the port would hold bilateral discussions with the representatives of labour in order to clarify the various labour-related issues and to ensure that their interests are fully protected.

The Deputy Chairman, Mr A. Janardhana Rao, said that the board approved both the request for qualification and the request for participation documents and also expressed happiness that they were line with the board's commitments to the project. It also appreciated the efforts by the port authorities in taking all appropriate comprehensive measures relating to execution of the ICTT project in consultation with the Ministry of Shipping and prospective bidders.

The board fully endorsed the action taken by the port administration.

In response to the notice inviting tenders, he said 14 prospective bidders have submitted their documents for qualification. After scrutiny of their proposals and details, the port has qualified nine bidders subject to the security clearance from the Union Government.

They are Dubai Port International, UAE; Maersh A/s, Denmark; P&O Ports Pvt Ltd, International Container Terminal Services Inc, Manila; PSA India Pte Ltd, Singapore, Adani Exports, Ahmedabad; L&T, Chennai; IL&FS-Punj Lloyd Consortium, New Delhi; ACT Shipping Consortium, Kandla.

However, qualification of three of the bidders is subject to submission of the original documents regarding the management contract they are entering into with the terminal operators.

As this project is in consistency with the Government policy of `public private partnership' such as BOT model, the Government had offered assistance in the form of viability gap funding for creating common user infrastructure facilities such as national highway connectivity, rail connectivity, dredging and providing break-waters at a total cost of Rs 932 crore.

According to Mr Rao, the board deliberated on all the relevant issues and the officials clarified various apprehensions raised by the members of the board while approving the proposal unanimously. The members also desired that further process of tendering would proceed as scheduled in order to enable finalisation of the bid proposal before March 31. The bids would be opened on March 25 and submitted to the board on March 27 for its approval according to the current schedule.

Meanwhile, the trade unions of the port under the banner Kochi Port Protection Committee also held a demonstration and protest meeting in the port premises opposing the move of the authorities to hand over the existing container terminal to private bidders prior to the development of ICTT.