M & M-Led Consortium Bids For Tiruppur Infrastructure Project

The three-member M & M-led consortium has, as members, two other world majors -- Bechtel of the US and Northwest Water of the UK.

This consortium is among the four that have been shortlisted by the Tamilnadu Corporation for Industrial Infrastructure Development (TACID) for providing basic amenities like water, municipal sewerage, site development, improvement of roads and effluent treatment plants.

Three other consortia have been shortlisted by TACID for the Tiruppur project.

They are Biwater International, UK, along with ProMajestic (Malaysia), Mitsubishi and Augan Water, UK; Hume Industries of Malaysia with Thames Water of the UK, Humer Integrated Water and John Holland of Australia; and, Kuk Dong Engineering of Korea along with Marubeni, Acer (UK) and Subash Projects.

 

The Rs 1,300 crore project will be implemented by the New Tiruppur Area Development Corporation, a company to be promoted by the successful bidder along with the Tiruppur Exporters Association, the Ministry of Commerce and the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd., (ILFS) and TACID.

The successful bidder apart, each of the other promoters will chip in with Rs 10 crore, being their contribution to the equity of the company.

In another unique show of confidence in the ability of Tiruppur to remain as the top export centre for knitwear, USAID (the US Agency for International Development) has come forward to stand sovereign guarantee to the Tiruppur company. With this, the infrastructure services provider plans to raise as much as $ 25 million in the international debt market.

The World Bank has sanctioned a line of credit for the project which will be made available through ILFS.

The project will be implemented on a BOOT basis and in phase I, top priority will be given for water and sewerage treatment plants. Knitwear exporters in Tiruppur, it may be recalled, have been facing major pollution-related problems because of the large-scale dyeing done there.

The infrastructure company will provide the services for 30 years after which the assets will be transferred to the town municipality or corporation.

Phase I of the project will cost Rs 6 billion and work is expected to start on the same by mid-1997. Detailed project reports are to be submitted by all four bidders by the end of January next.