Century Plyboards emerges highest bidder for Khidderpore Dock project

Century Plyboards (India) Ltd has placed the highest price bid to emerge the successful bidder for developing the western side berths of Khidderpore Dock (KPD) at Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (SPMPT) for handling containers and other cargo in public private partnership (PPP) mode.

Century Plyboards is the largest seller of multi-use plywood and decorative veneers in the Indian organised plywood market.

Century Plyboards has a plywood and laminate manufacturing facility at Bishnupur near Joka, Kolkata. The 6.6-acre production complex annually rolls out high grade ply, mainly from imported timber and logs. Century Plyboards also runs a container freight station (CFS) at SPMPT.

By entering port operations, Century Plyboards is seeking to gain control over logistics, said an industry executive.

KPD is the older of the two docks at SPMPT – earlier known as Kolkata Port Trust - with 17 multi-purpose berths and one berth for passenger-cum-cargo vessels, split into two parts of ten and eight berths, respectively.

The relatively new Netaji Subhas Dock (NSD) has a heavy lift berth, 10 berths including four dedicated container berths, one liquid cargo berth and four multi-purpose berths.

Currently, most of the traffic is handled at NSD (all the container traffic at Kolkata) and the minimum traffic is handled at KPD. To unlock the full potential of KPD, the port authority has initiated a project for the ‘Rejuvenation of KPD’, to be implemented in PPP mode.

Project in two phases

The project seeks to undertake the development and operation/maintenance of the western side berths of KPD I in two phases — berths 2, 4 and 6 in Phase I and berths 8,10,12 in Phase II, for handling containers and other cargo (pulses, fertilizer/limestone) on a concession period of 30 years.

Phase 1 of the project will have a capacity to handle 1.65 lakh twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and 3 lakh tonnes of pulses involving an investment of ₹95.66 crore. Phase 2 will add 1.65 lakh TEUs and 3.5 lakh tonnes of fertiliser/limestone handling capacity with an investment of ₹86.15 crore.

Official sources said that SPMPT received four price bids on the tender by Thursday, of which Century Plyboards quoted the highest aggregate royalty comprising royalty per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) and royalty per tonne of other cargo.

“The tender committee will declare the highest bidder in the next few days,” an official said.

The contract will use the revised model concession agreement for PPP project at major ports.

It will also follow the tariff guidelines for upcoming public-private-partnership (PPP) projects issued by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in December. The rate norms allow new PPP terminals to set tariffs based on market dynamics.

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