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Gaurav Raghuvanshi

Ahmedabad , June 15

AHMEDABAD-based Adani Group has bagged the mandate to construct bulk silos for storing and handling grain for the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

The project involves creation of 18 lakh tonnes of grain storage and handling capacity by the private sector on a build, own and operate basis.

"We received the letter of intent from the Government about a fortnight ago. We are now working on the nitty-gritty of the usage guarantee agreement with FCI and preparing detailed plans on creating the infrastructure of silos and wagons," the Adani Group Chief Executive Officer (Infrastructure), Mr Sanjay Gupta, told Business Line.

The project, which market sources value at about Rs 800 crore, marks the entry of the private sector into FCI's domain. FCI will, however, continue to be the nodal agency for procurement and distribution of the foodgrains.

As per the original proposal, FCI will guarantee 100 per cent utilisation of the infrastructure for ten years and 75 per cent for the next 20 years. The procurement, ownership and maintenance of the wagons will be the private player's responsibility.

The project has been broken into two distinct circuits namely Moga-Coimbatore, Chennai, Bangalore and Kaithal-Navi Mumbai-Hoogly.

The storage capacity to be created is 4 lakh tonnes at the base depots in Moga and Kaithal and 1.5 lakh tonnes at the field depots. The bids for the project, that has been hanging fire since 2002, were opened on November 29 last year and Adani emerged the lowest bidder for both circuits.

The other bidders were CWC consortium, Escorts-SICAL, Aban Lloyd-SICAL, Reliance and Jagson. Reliance pulled out, while Jagson's bid was disqualified.

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