The Visakhapatnam Port Trust has decided to give 45 days time for submission of the request for proposal (RFP) from seven firms who were found qualified to take part in price bidding for extension of container terminal.
After its in-principle decision to issue Letter of Award for the Rs.633-crore project to Visakha Container Terminal Private Limited (VCTPL) ran into rough weather following differences over parting with gross revenue share, the VPT decided to call for fresh price bids from seven qualified bidders.
Besides VCTPL, those who were found qualified in technical and financial background evaluation include Adani, Simplex Infra, NEC, Gangavaram Port Ltd, Welspun & Leighton, and Gammon India.
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“We are ready for seeking RFP from qualified bidders. The proposal will be put before the board meeting shortly,” a senior official of the VPT told
VPT is expected to seek a notification on revised guidelines from the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) on performance-centric revision in tariff to go ahead with seeking RFP.
As per the normal practice, price revision is effected once in five years based on wholesale price index. The revised guidelines envisage revision once in a year based on certain performance standards.
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During the last attempt to issue Letter of Award, the VCTPL was the only firm which submitted price bid with the six other qualified firms failing to submit any proposal. This finally paved the way for clearance of the proposal to award the project to the VCTPL by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in April. However, during negotiations, serious differences cropped up among VPT and VCTPL over sharing of revenue. If everything goes well, the container extension project could be awarded in next two to three months, the source said.