The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has eased tender terms for privatising multi-modal cargo terminals at Varanasi, Haldia and Sahibganj on National Waterway 1.

The three multi-modal terminals were built by the waterways development agency on 1,390 km along river Ganga with World Bank funding.

In November 2020, IWAI issued global tender seeking bids to privatise the Sahibganj multi-modal terminal in Jharkhand for a 30-year concession to operate, manage and develop the terminal.

The multi-modal terminal is built by IWAI with an investment of Rs 280 crore. IWAI plans to invest Rs 148 crore to provide rail connectivity to the terminal.

The private operator will be mandated to triple the terminal capacity to 9.5 million tonne with an investment of Rs 376 crore. It will also undertake operation and management of the proposed Ro-Ro terminal at Sahibganj.

The multi-modal terminals at Varanasi and at Haldia are being privatised on  equip, operate and transfer (EOT) basis as there is no scope for expansion of these terminals requiring capital investments.

This is the second attempt by IWAI to privatise Varanasi terminal after an earlier plan to bid it out on OMD model failed to attract bidders. The global tenders for both were issued in May 2020 but have been extended several times due to lack of bidder interest.

The Varanasi terminal was built by IWAI with an investment of Rs 200 crore and the agency plans to invest a further Rs 85 crore on rail connectivity.

The private operator will be tasked with operating, managing and maintaining the terminal infrastructure and the proposed passenger pontoon jetty as well as equip terminal infrastructure for augmenting capacity to 1.26 million tonne with an investment of Rs 22.5 crore.

The Varanasi contract will have a tenure of 10 years which can be extended by two years (earlier 10 plus five years).

The terminal at Haldia was built by IWAI with an investment of Rs 452.2 crore with another Rs 19 crore being spent on rail connectivity.

The private operator will be mandated to operate, manage and maintain the terminal infrastructure and equip the terminal infrastructure for augmenting capacity to 3.07 million tonne with an investment of Rs 47.5 crore.

The Haldia contract will have a concession period of 10 years which can be extended by five years (earlier 15-plus five years).

The contracts will be awarded to the entity quoting the highest royalty per metric ton of riverine cargo handled at each of these terminals to IWAI. Additionally, for non-riverine cargo handled at the terminals, the private operator will have to pay royalty calculated on the royalty quoted for riverine cargo plus a premium of 20 percent.

IWAI has set cargo and vessel related charges at these terminals.