Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust is soon to start the process of inviting fresh bids for its fourth container terminal.
JNPT is going to appoint consultants to make fresh estimates for the project and also appoint new transactional advisors on the advice of shipping ministry, L Radhakrishnan, chairman, JNPT told Business Standard.
“We should be able to award the project by the end of this financial year,” he added.
The port had to cancel the last bid after ABG-PSA consortium, which made the winning bid, fell apart. JNPT had received one of the highest revenue share ever offered in the infrastructure sector at 51%.
The second highest bid of 35% share by Vedanta did not even come close to the winning offer. But later, ABG withdrew from the consortium citing financial issues. ABG was expected to invest Rs 1,000 crore in the Rs 8,000 crore fourth container terminal project.
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Experts say, it is unlikely that JNPT would draw such high bids this time around.
“Revenue share is not the only way to get returns from the project. We will also earn from the leasing of land for a 30 year period,” Radhakrishnan said.
This is the third time when one of the most ambitious port projects of the country is trying revive itself. The first round of bidding was cancelled by the shipping ministry, as the bid failed to attract enough participation. The second round, which just got cancelled, faced several complications with Danish-based AP Moller-Maersk Group taking legal action for disqualification followed by Essar and Lanco Infratech opting out of the bid due to delays. Finally, the winning consortium of PSA-ABG had to bow out of the project.
Now we will have to wait to see if fourth container terminal will be third time lucky.
