The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai box terminal: Govt to decide on Hutchison participation soon

The Government is likely to take a decision on whether or not to give security clearance to Hutchison Port Holdings to bid for the proposed Mumbai offshore container terminal project within the next few days.

Official sources told Business Line that the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) will be meeting on Thursday to decide on whether or not to allow the international port operator to bid for the Mumbai container project.

Based on the CCS's recommendation, the Government will take a final decision on the issue. Till then, Hutchison Port's proposed foray in the Indian ports sector will continue to hang in a balance. In fact, the port operator had been trying to enter the Indian container terminal sector for quite some time, but its efforts had come a cropper, as it could not get security clearance to bid for such projects.

The sources say the Hutchison bid issue is one of the factors that has been delaying the already-delayed Rs 1,200-crore offshore container terminal project at Mumbai. It is for the same reason that the Mumbai port had to extend the last date for submission of bids to March 16, although the first pre-bid meeting between the prospective bidders and the port authorities had taken place in early August 2005.

"The Shipping Ministry is keen that there is no further extension of the last date, whether or not the Hutchison bid is cleared," a source said.

Hutchison is one of the11 companies in the race for the Rs 1,200 crore offshore container terminal project at Mumbai, the others including Mitsui OSK, P & O and Evergreen, besides the domestic companies such as L&T, Gammon India and ABG Group.

In the past few months, the last date for acceptance of bids has been shifted several times. After the first pre-bid meeting with bidders, the bidding date was fixed at around November 2-4, 2005. This was shifted to November 28 at the request of some bidders during the second pre-bid meeting in October.

But even after November 28, the last date has been shifted four times at the Government's instance — to December 15; January 9, 2006; February 10, February 28 and now March 16.

The shift was required on account of delay in acquiring security clearances for certain entities.

A security clearance was sought for all the bidders aiming to build and operate the container terminal keeping in view the close proximity of the proposed terminal to the naval base in Mumbai.

The project involves setting up two offshore container berths with a total length of 700 metres, with an option to the successful bidder to develop a third berth at a latter stage with a quay length of 350 m.

The proposed berth will thus be bigger than the neighbouring JNPT's terminal (650 m), NSICT (600 m) and the third berth being constructed (712 m).

The new berth can simultaneously handle two container vessels of 6,000 TEUs each.