The Ports Department has extended the last date for submitting bids for the development Beypore port on public-private partnership basis to February 24.

The department had floated the tender for the purpose last month fixing the last date as February 4, but has extended it in view of more companies expressing interest in taking part in the bidding process, according to department officials.

At a pre-bidding meeting held a week ago, only one prospective bidder, the Hyderabad-based Ramky group, had participated. Later, the department received enquiries from some other companies, which necessitated giving them more time to respond to the tender.

The development of the port was originally envisaged at an outlay of around Rs. 650 crore, but was subsequently scaled down to Rs. 163 crore mainly because the Lakshadweep Development Council wanted to construct a berth of its own to handle the cargo and passengers to and from the island.

Meanwhile, there has been no final word as yet on the final outcome of the bid submitted by Mundra Port for the development of Azhikkal port.

The department had put out the tender with the cost estimate at Rs. 760 crore and Mundra port had submitted the bid with a higher estimate of Rs. 3,000 crore. This was reportedly in the light of a mega combined cycle thermal power project proposed to be established in the vicinity of the port, which would require large-scale import of coal.

But, the Government had later decided to set up a gas-based project, doing away with the need for coal import. In the changed scenario, the stand of Mundra port has remained unclear, though the Ports Minister had the other day said that the port would be developed with an outlay of Rs. 3,000 crore.

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