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Amit Mitra

Mumbai Jan. 18

AFTER facing a delay of more than three years, the Rs 200-crore container terminal project at Kandla port finally looks set to take off, with the port authorities completing the final round of pre-bid meetings last week.

The port is now expected to put the draft RFP document before the board at its next meeting scheduled on January 29 and within a month after that complete the final round of bidding. After the disqualification of L&T by the port in August last year, there are only three bidders in the fray — ABG Heavy Industries, Gammon India and Afcons. The bidding will be done on the basis of how much revenue share the bidders are willing to offer to the port.

The port had tried to hasten the bidding process in August last year, rescheduling the deadline for submission of technical and financial bids to September 19. But the pre-bid meetings between the port and the bidders got subsequently bogged down in fresh delay.

Earlier, P&O Ports, which operates the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal and the Chennai Container Terminal at Chennai port, had been the first to show interest in the project. But prolonged negotiations between P&O Ports and Kandla port over certain alterations in the concession agreement came to a cropper, leading to the withdrawal of the container terminal operator about three years ago.

Kandla port has proposed to realign the container terminal project and have it constructed and operated on BOT basis on berths no 11 and 12, which have a combined quay length of 545 metres and a draft of 12.5 metres alongside the berths. The berth no 12, which is at present being developed, is expected to be ready for use by October-end.

As per the fresh plan drawn up by Kandla port, the selected bidder will be required to commission full-fledged container handling operations at berth no 12, with at least two new Rail Mounted Quay Cranes (RMQCs), within 24 months of the signing of lease agreement.

However, the selected party will have to commence container handling operations at berth no 11, which is ready for use, within eight months of the signing of the agreement, with adequate number of RMQCs and mobile harbour cranes as specified in the agreement.

Kandla port has projected a throughput of 1.5 lakh TEUs in the first year and 4.5 lakh TEUs in the fifth year of operation for the terminal. The port's cardinal marketing plank for the box terminal project is that it has over 1 million sq km of hinterland, consisting of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The port is also underscoring the point that it is the `gateway port' for vast granaries of Punjab and Haryana and the rich industrial belt of West and North India that caters to a variety of cargoes in the form of bulk, break-bulk, POL and containers. The other point being highlighted is that it is the nearest Indian port to West Asia and Europe, offering "the lowest tariffs for cargo handling".

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