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The global tender floated by the Ports Department for the development of Beypore port near here, has drawn a blank.
Though a couple of companies had expressed interest in taking part in the tender process at a pre-bid meeting held in January which forced the department to extend the last date for submitting bids by a couple of weeks, no one responded when the time ran out on February 24.
According to department officials, the situation will be reviewed at the earliest and a decision taken on what to do next. For one, Consulting Engineers Private Ltd, which prepared the detailed feasibility report, may be asked to revise some of the suggestions contained in the report, especially those relating to the revenue returns for the Government after the project goes on stream.
Beypore port, the second largest port in the State after Kochi, is envisaged to be developed at an outlay of Rs 163 crore through the public-private partnership (PPP) route. The Ports Department had earlier entered into an agreement with the Lakshadweep Development Council to allow the latter to construct a separate berth for handling passenger and cargo traffic to and from the island.
Chequered history
Beypore port development plan has had a chequered history over the last one-and-a-half decades. In the late nineties, there was a proposal by Mobil Peevees company to set up an LPG storage terminal at Beypore, along with the development of the port, at a total cost of Rs 300 crore. But it did not take off for various reasons.
Later, Parisons Group had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ports Department at the global investors meet held in 2002 for developing the port at a cost of Rs 500 crore. The company had also roped in PricewaterhouseCoopers for conducting feasibility studies on the project. However, this proposal, too, petered out soon, keeping the development project in cold storage till the other day.
Bid cleared
Meanwhile, the State Cabinet has cleared the bid submitted by Chennai-based Malabar Ports for developing the Ponnani port through the PPP route.
Malabar Ports, which prepared the master plan for the development of the port, won the race through ‘Swiss Challenge' method, out-bidding High Valley Infra Projects Private Ltd, which was the lone bidder in the tender process.
High Valley had originally quoted 1.7 per cent as the Government's share of the revenue profit. After negotiations with the Ports Department, the company raised the Government's share to 2.6 per cent for the first 15 years, and four per cent for the remaining 15 years, of the total concession period of 30 years.
However, Malabar Ports offered higher revenue share to the Government by applying the Swiss Challenge method and won the build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract. The projected total outlay of the project is Rs 763 crore.
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