JNPT terminal deal likely by March

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust expects to sign the licence agreement for the Rs 1,000 crore project for the conversion of a bulk terminal into a container terminal by March 2004, according to the schedule drawn by port authorities.

Five parties have submitted their technical bids -- a consortium led by Maersk, the Port of Singapore Authority, Evergreen-Marubeni, J M Baxi and French firm CMA-CGM.

The bidding for the conversion of the bulk terminal was mired in controversy due to the last-minute withdrawals of UK firm CDC and Nikhil Gandhi's Sea King Infrastructure from their consortiums lead by J M Baxi and CMA-CGM, respectively. The port authorities are still deliberating on the issue of disqualification of these parties.

The port has appointed TCE Consulting Engineers for evaluating the technical bids and the short-listed candidate will be announced by mid-January.

The port plans to wrap up the price bidding by January 20, and issue the letter of intent by the beginning of February. The port has also charted the schedule for the Rs 640 crore project for the deepening and widening of the main harbour and the Jawahar Lal Nehru Port channel.

While the expressions of interest for project consultants has already been invited, the port expects to finalise the candidate by March, 2004.

The tendering process will tentatively begin in April, while the award of the capital dredging work is expected to be achieved by October, 2004. The port plans to complete the project, which will require 48.57 million cubic metres of dredging, by 2007.

JNPT expects to increase the draft of the main harbour to 13.9 metres from the current 11 metre at the entrance of the main channel, which is shared by the Mumbai port and JNPT.

The project also includes the increasing of the depth of the channel that leads to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port from 11.5 metres to 12.8 metres.

The deeper channel will enable the port to accommodate vessels with the capacity of 5,000-6,000 TEUs. At present, the port can handle vessels with a capacity of 4,000 TEUs. This means it will be possible for the port to entertain more of the transhipment vessels.