ABG Shipyards has emerged the highest bidder to develop and operate a Rs.200 crore container terminal at Kandla Port by quoting a revenue share of 48.997 per cent.

ABG had bid for the project by tying up with Voltry Terminals which operates a container terminal at Genoa in Italy to comply with the minimum experience criteria.

The Afcons-Hamburg Port Authority combine was the second highest bidder with a revenue share ratio of 33.399 per cent while Gammon India-Mercy Docks & Harbour team came third with 16.974 per cent. Price bids were opened by Kandla Port Trust on 21 April 2005.

ABG's winning bid is reportedly the highest-ever revenue share quoted by a private container terminal operator after the Government decided to develop container terminals at major ports with private investments on BOT basis. P&O Ports had quoted 37.123 per cent for the terminal at Chennai, while the Maersk-Concor combine had quoted 35.503 per cent for the JNPT terminal. For the international container transhipment terminal at Kochi port, the winning price bid of Dubai Ports International was 33.33 per cent.

The board of trustees of Kandla Port Trust is scheduled to meet on April 28 to consider and approve the highest bid of ABG-Voltry Terminals after which the proposal will be submitted to the Ministry of Shipping for a final clearance.

When fully operational, the new container terminal will have the capacity to handle 4.5 lakh TEUs from two berths (Nos.11 and 12) having a combined quay length of 520m with a draft of 13.5m. The private operator is expected to handle a minimum throughput of 1.7-1.8 lakh TEUs during the first year of operations and scale it up to 4.5 lakh TEUs by the fifth year.

Also See:

Kandla Port box terminal: Bids to be opened soon (20-Apr-05)