Chennai project fails to attract bidders?

The deadline to submit bids passed on 27 December and so far the Chennai Port Trust has failed to come back to Port Strategy to confirm or deny the rumours.

But the Trust had already extended the deadline for submission of bids after none of the three preferred bidders, PSA International, DP World and Adani Ports, submitted a bid for the project by the original cut-off date.

The planned container terminal at Jawahar dock is set to have a capacity of around 800,000 standard containers per year. It already has a ready-made dock but the winning bidder would have needed to install cranes and other port equipment.

This project is all part of the government’s plan to put 30 terminals out to tender by March 2014, a move which is intended to add 288.48m teu to its 12 state owned ports and modernise terminals in the process.

If the rumour is true, it’s unclear as to what next step the government will take.

Meanwhile, one of the shortlisted bidders, PSA International, told Port Strategy that it had no comment to make on the issue. DP World and Adani Ports have so far not responded to a request by PS to comment.

But, there is plenty of speculation as to why the operators failed to proceed with their bids. One reason could be down to the amount of red tape historically involved in Indian port tenders.

Or, as a source told Livemint, it could be down to over-capacity on India’s eastern coast when it comes to handling container cargo.