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India Ports Global Ltd has scrapped a long-running tender to select an Indian strategic partner to manage, operate and maintain (MOM) the container and multi-purpose terminals at the Chabahar port in Iran.
India Ports Global, a joint venture between the state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and the Deendayal Port Trust, has scrapped the tender issued in December 2017, citing lack of clarity on sanctions that were re-imposed last year by the US on the Persian Gulf nation over its disputed nuclear programme.
India Ports Global, vested with the task of overseeing the project, had extended the date for submitting price bids several times.
“The participation of bidders gets reduced with the sword of sanctions hanging. So, we have deferred it for the time being. We have terminated the current tender and will come out with a fresh tender once we get more clarity on the issue,” a Shipping Ministry official said, adding that India Ports Global has hired a local Iranian firm – Kaveh Port and Marine Services Co — to run the port as an interim arrangement.
Along with the MOM tender, India Ports Global has also scrapped the tender to buy three all-terrain 100-tonne capacity yard cranes and three rough terrain 60-tonne capacity yard cranes. The price proposals for the yard cranes were first sought in February 2018.
India Ports Global and Aria Banader Iranian Port signed a deal in May 2016 to equip and operate the container and multi-purpose terminals at Shahid Beheshti–Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million on a 10-year lease.
First overseas venture
The Chabahar port project will be the first overseas venture for Indian state-owned ports such as JNPT and the Deendayal Port Trust.
Located in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province on Iran’s South-eastern coast (outside the Persian Gulf), the Chabahar port is of great strategic importance for the development of regional maritime transit traffic to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The first phase development of the Chabahar port will have a container terminal with two berths of 640 metre quay length and a depth of 16 metres and a multi-purpose terminal with a quay length of 600 metres and draft of 14 metres.
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