The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai box terminal project may be delayed

Uncertainty continues to shadow Hutchison Port Holdings' proposed foray into the Indian port sector, with the Government still undecided on whether to give security clearance to the international port operator to bid for the Rs 1,200-crore Mumbai container terminal project.

With the Cabinet Committee on Security, which met in March to decide on the issue, referring the matter to the National Security Advisory Council (NSAC), the Government has asked Mumbai port to extend the deadline for submission of bids from March 16 to May 10. Clearly, the project will be experiencing further delay.

Authoritative sources said the NSAC would shortly be meeting to examine the participation of Hutchison Port in the Mumbai container project from the security perspective, before it gives its recommendation. The security issue has been raised due to the proximity of the proposed terminal to key naval installations in Mumbai.

Till then, Hutchison's proposed foray in the Indian ports sector will continue to hang in a balance. In fact, the port operator had been trying to enter the Indian container terminal sector for quite some time, but its efforts had come a cropper, as it could not get security clearance to bid for such projects.

Hutchison is one of the eleven companies in the race for the Rs 1,200-crore offshore container terminal project at Mumbai, the others including Mitsui OSK, P&O and Evergreen, besides Indian companies such as L&T, Gammon India and ABG Group.

During the past few months, the last date for acceptance of bids was extended several times, mostly because of the issue of security clearance for Hutchison's entry.

After the first pre-bid meeting with bidders, the bidding date was fixed at November 2, 2005.

This was shifted to November 28 at the request of some bidders during the second pre-bid meeting in October.

But even after November 28, the last date has been extended four times at the Government's instance — first to December 15, then January 9, 2006, February 10, February 28, March 16 and now to May 10, 2006. The project involves setting up two offshore container berths with a total length of 700 metres, with an option for the successful bidder to develop a third berth at a latter stage with a quay length of 350 metres. The proposed berth will thus be bigger than the neighbouring JNPT's terminal (650 metres), NSICT (600 metres) and the third berth being constructed (712 metres). The new berth can simultaneously handle two fourth general container vessels of 6.000 TEUs each.