Even as ABG Haldia Bulk Terminals (HBT) pulled out from Haldia this week, citing political reasons and bias by the Kolkata Port Trust, one of its partners, ABG Infralogistics has participated in a bid that closed on Friday.
While HBT officials claim that the firm has nothing to do with ABG Infralogistics operations, KoPT alleges that the participation shows that the pullout was due to economic reasons. HBT is a joint venture between ABG Infralogistics and French firm Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA).
According to KoPT officials, ABG Infralogistics holds 26 per cent in HBT. Babu Rajeev, chief executive officer of ABG Infralogistics, confirmed that the firm was participating in the bidding for berth number 5 for container handling at Netaji Subhash Dock, under the Kolkata Dock System.
“The dry bulk cargo handling at Haldia was going down considerably, reaching up to 17 per cent in Septemeber. On the other hand, the container handling at Kolkata was increasing by 10 per cent. This is the reason why they are interested at Kolkata not in Haldia,” said Manish Jain, chairman, KoPT.
Meanwhile, KoPT also came up with an allegation today that ABG had gone for a change in shareholding during the tendering and awarding of the bid. “This was not permissible during the tendering period,” he added.
As per KoPT reports, while ABG Infralogistics held 89 per cent and ABG Calcutta Container Terminal held 11 per cent when the bid was invited, ABG Infralogistics transferred 63 per cent shares to ABG Bulk Handling, under LDA. After this, ABG Infralogistics shares came down to 26 per cent in the joint venture.
Later, HBT chairman Gurpreet Malhi refuted this charge by the port and said that the transfer of shares was as per the law and contractual obligations.
Meanwhile, HBT today retrenched 348 of its remaining employees, officially. “The retrenchment has been carried out in full compliance of the relevant laws and each employee’s bank account has been credited with the compensation they are entitled to under the provisions of the relevant law, today 3rd November 2012,” Malhi said.
In all, 650 people are out of job. HBT had sacked 275 workers in September while the remaining workers were rendered jobless once HBT announced its decision to pull out on October 31.
