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Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram , Aug 17

THE State Government has received technical and financial bids from two companies for the development of the proposed international container trans-shipment terminal at nearby Vizhinjam.

The two companies are Gammon India Ltd of Mumbai, and a consortium of Mumbai-based Zoom Developers and two Chinese companies - Kaidi Electric Power Company and China Harbour Engineering Company. The last date for submitting the bids was August 17.

The Government, which invited the tenders in January this year, had subsequently extended the last date thrice. In the first instance, the date was extended as the prospective bidders wanted certain changes in the project structure.

After the latest extension of the date to August 17, 22 companies had bought the request for proposal (RFP) documents but only two came back with bids before the deadline.

The Minister of Ports, Mr M.V. Raghavan, told newspersons on Wednesday that three months would be required to examine the bids and take a decision on the private promoter.

An evaluation committee for examining the bids is expected to be constituted at the next Cabinet meeting, he added.

Once the promoter has been identified, the Government will sign a build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement by December this year; work on the project will commence by the middle of next year.

If everything goes as per schedule, the project will go on stream in 2009, the Minister said.

The project, which will be a joint venture between the Government and the private promoter, is proposed to be implemented in three phases at a total cost of Rs 4,200 crore. Of this, the first phase, for which the tenders have been received now, will cost Rs 1,850 crore.

The Minister said that the Government's equity in the joint venture would be 24 per cent, in which non-resident Keralites and Government institutions would be able to become stakeholders.

At a debt-equity ratio of 1:1.5, the Government's share in the equity of the joint venture would be around Rs 180 crore in the first phase.

The Government has already floated a company called Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd for developing the basic infrastructure for the project, such as roads, railway line, water supply, and electricity. The total outlay for establishing these facilities has been placed at Rs 80 crore.

In the event of the Government not being able to finalise a partner, it would go on its own to work on the basic components of the project such as breakwaters and reclamation, the Minister said.

This would require around Rs 500 crore, which could be mobilised by way of Budgetary support and loans from financial institutions, he added.

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