Direct bids for deep sea port

The West Bengal government has received the Centre's nod to invite bids for developers for the state's proposed, 18 metre draft, deep sea port project.

Industry and commerce secretary Sabysachi Sen said it was decided at a meeting on February 20 that the state government would manage the bidding for port developer.

The move stemmed from the state government's initiative to put the deep sea port project on the fast track as it was essential for the success of the proposed PCPIR on the Bay of Bengal coast.

The state government had approached the committee set up by the government of India seeking the right to skip the process of appointing consultants for the project and directly invite bids from investors and developers.

Earlier a tender floated for consultants had not evoked any response. While many of the consultancy firms had picked up papers for expression of interest (EOI), final bids were not submitted as they were not satisfied with the terms of reference.

However a few companies have evinced interest in the project, which included New Kolkata International Development (NKID), developer of the PCPIR, JSW Steel and Videocon groups.

As NKID would use the port to handle vessels bringing raw materials and shipping finished goods for the chemical and petrochemical units in the PCPIR, it was free to make a formal offer to build it too.

In that case, the state may drop the bid process and ask NKID to build the deep sea port as long as its structuring was comparable to global standards, Sen indicated.

Sen said, the state government would take the help of consultants to prepare the bid document and then invite expression of interest from the developers.

Once the bidder was selected, the state government would then approach the central government to indicate the areas where assistance was required, and co-ordinate with other stakeholders like the central ports ministry and Kolkata Port Trust.