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Port Authority of Singapore (PSA) has emerged as the highest bidder for the Rs 6,700 crore fourth container terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru port, it is learnt.
Though the bids were opened on Tuesday, the results were not officially announced as one of the bidders, who was denied security clearance, had field a case in the Bombay High Court. The case is scheduled to come up for hearing for admission on July 4.
A port official said the tender results will be officially announced after July 4.
However, parties bidding for the project confirmed that PSA has emerged as the H1 bidder, offering more than 50 per cent revenue sharing.
Highest bidder
According to the tender norms, the contract will be awarded to the party agreeing to share the highest revenue with the Government.
PSA is believed to have offered a revenue sharing of 50.8 per cent, which is said to be the highest in the case of any private port project in the country.
Under the contract terms, the bidder has to bear the entire construction cost. The port trust will bear only the cost of dredging the channel.
PSA was among the five parties short-listed. Others include DP World, Sterlite Industries and GVK. The second highest was Sterlite, offering revenue sharing of up to 35 per cent, said one of the parties.
5th Singapore–run port
If the PSA is awarded the contract, it will be the fifth port in India where the Singapore government-owned company will be operating container terminals. It already operates at Chennai, Tuticorin, Kandla and Kolkata. Recently, PSA consortium with its Indian partner Sical was denied permission to bid for a second berth at Tuticorin.
APM Terminals, after winning its rights to bid for the project, backed out of the tender at the last moment, stating that the project is not viable.
The case delayed awarding the contract by nearly two years, resulting cost escalation, said a port official.
Box handling
The JN port already has three terminals — two run by private parties and one by the port trust with a design to handle a total of 3.6 million TEUs a year.
But the port, one of the 13 major ports in the country, handled 4.27 million containers last fiscal, nearly five per cent more than it did in the previous year.
One of the two private terminals is run by DP World, a Dubai government-owned company, also a bidder for the fourth terminal.
The other terminal is run by Gateway Terminals India - a joint venture between APM Terminals and Container Corporation of India.
The JN port handles more than half of the container traffic in the country.
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