Dubai Port vies for Mumbai container terminal project

Dubai Port International, which is operating at the Visakha Container Terminal in Visakhapatnam with United Liner Agencies and Cochin Container Terminal, is among the six international players vying for the Mumbai container terminal project. The bid for the project is due on November 4, 2005.

The competition from international and domestic players for both Mumbai and Chennai port terminals is so tough that some of them are finding it difficult to even enter the bidding process, the company source told Business Standard.

"In fact, the reports that the three companies, Hutchison Port Holding, Evergreen Marine and Dubai Port International, being not given Defence clearances to participate in the bidding process were not true though their proposals were put on hold by the Union home ministry for unknown reasons," an informed official said.

According to him, the Defence ministry has not intervened in the matter and there was no security concern as the bids were invited only to operate the container terminals and not the ports.

Besides the Mumbai terminal, Dubai Port International has also sent its RFP (Request For Proposal) for the development of the second container terminal at the Chennai port.

For the Chennai port terminal project, the date for submitting RFP has been extended till November 11, 2005.

While Evergreen is one of the largest shipping companies in the world and has recently announced plans to increase its shipping presence in India, Hutchison, which operates ports around the world, is already in India as a cellular operator in consortium with Essar and MAX group.

Hutchison had earlier bid for container terminals at a couple of places including Chennai but lost it to P&O Ports.