The Hindu Business Line : For container operators

THE Ennore Port, near Chennai, will be the next venue up for grabs by world's top container terminal operators to compete for developing and operating a container terminal in the country.

Ennore Port Limited (EPL) is to float global tenders within a month, inviting Request For Qualifications (RFQs) from terminal operators for building a Rs 700-crore container terminal at the country's first corporate major port. Already nine global players including AP Moeller-Maersk A/S, P&O Ports and PSA Corporation have submitted their Expression of Interest (EoIs) when EPL floated enquiries a few months ago to gauge the interest of private operators for developing the project under the build- operate-transfer (BOT) format.

A Shipping Ministry official said the global tender will be open to all and not just to the nine players which had submitted the EoIs. "New bidders can also join in and the RFQs will be applicable to all," he said. The one million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) capacity terminal with a quay length of 700 metres will have 100 acres of back-up land for stacking the boxes. The terminal will have a draft of 15-18 metres sufficient to accommodate mainline container vessels of 4,000-6,000 TEU capacity.

The tendering process for the project is expected to be completed in six-eight months and the successful bidder will get two years to construct the terminal. As per the implementation schedule, the new terminal is slated to become operational by early 2007.

Once operational, the Ennore container terminal will compete with the P&O Ports-run Chennai Container Terminal (CCT), which has been identified as a gateway hub for the east coast. The successful bidder for the Ennore terminal will have freedom to set tariffs as being a corporate facility it will not come under the purview of the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP). At the time of privatising the container terminal in Chennai Port, the Government had given an undertaking on not setting up a competing facility in Chennai Port for three years after P&O Ports started operations on November 30, 2001.

EPL is implementing road and rail projects for evacuation of cargo from the port. These include four-laning the 9-km Thiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti Road connecting Port to three National Highways. Part of the Ennore-Manali Road Improvement project, this four-laning is being implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through a Special Purpose Vehicle. "Considering the crucial nature of the link, EPL is keen on funding the differential cost of Rs 15.12 crore between four-laning and the original proposal of NHAI for two-laning with paved shoulders," the official said.

A 9-km new Northern Port Access Road to service the entry and evacuation of container and liquid cargo is also planned. This road will also service the proposed SEZ at Ennore. It is initially planned as a four-lane road and would be eventually made into an 8/12-lane road based on traffic growth. The Tamil Nadu Government has also agreed "in-principle" to take over a 5-km private road of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and upgrade it from the existing two to four lanes.

The NHAI is also implementing the second phase of the Chennai by-pass (between Puzhal and Madhuravoil) connecting NH 4 and NH 5 to avoid congestion on the Inner Ring Road and widening of Chennai by-pass phase 1 connecting NH 45 and NH 4 between Irumbuliur and Madhuravoil. The rail connectivity work between Ennore Port and main lines of the Indian Railways (Ennore Port to Athipattu) for servicing, coal, iron ore and container terminals is expected to start shortly.