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V. Sajeev Kumar

Kochi, Sept 29

The Kandla-based Jaisu Shipping Company has bagged the capital dredging contract at Kochi port to deepen and widen the channels for the Vallarpadam project. The contract will also combine the maintenance dredging in the port channel for the next two years.

However, the award of the work would be subject to the approval of the Shipping Ministry as the clearance of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and the Government sanction for capital dredging projects are yet to be received.

“We have been taking every possible step to save time to meet the contractual obligation with the DP World”, highly placed sources in the port said.

The sources pointed out that Jaisu Shipping had quoted well within the estimated cost for the capital dredging. However, the prices quoted by the firm for the third year maintenance dredging happened to be exorbitantly high, taking the overall quote to Rs 544 crore for the entire work, which would be 14.86 per cent higher than the indicated cost.

The port, therefore, mulling the possibility of not awarding the third year maintenance contract, which would mean that the contract include only the capital dredging and first two years of maintenance dredging, thus keeping the prices near the estimated levels, the sources added.

The capital dredging to deepen the channels for 14.5 metres of draught and maintenance dredging that coincides with the period of capital dredging had to be combined because of the physical inseparability of the works. It was also decided to include the maintenance dredging for a subsequent period of one year so that the contractor who carry out the capital dredging could be made responsible for maintaining the depth for the next one year, considering the uncertainties of siltation that the port channels are prone to immediately after the deepening.

The Board of Trustees had also disqualified the tender proposal of BPL-BBC joint venture Mumbai, as they did not fulfil the minimum qualification criteria for executing the work and experience stipulated in the departmental bid document.

According to sources, this was the second round of global tendering that the port had carried out. The first round itself resulted in a single qualified bid only and the price offered was 64 per cent higher than the estimated price. Any further re-tendering, therefore, was not likely to lead to more participation, considering the recent experience of all major ports in the country.

The sources also pointed out that the formal Government guidelines on the lines of the relaxed experience criteria in pre-qualification criteria (PQC) as recommended by the Ms Rani Jadhav Committee were yet to be issued by the Government.

The Ministry is awaiting a clearance from the CVC, before formal orders in this regard are issued. The award of the work is likely to be delayed until these clearances are received, the sources added.

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