Kandla receives 22 EoIs for ship building yard

Kandla Port Trust (KPT), has received 22 Expressions of Interest (EoI) from 18 infrastructure companies for building an offshore berthing facility as well as development of ship building yard at Tuna port, the proposed satellite port of Kandla.

The Kandla Port had floated a global tender for setting up these facilities as well as a Single Point Mooring facility at Veera in Kutch. The port authority is considering the EoIs and is likely to finalise the approved list soon.

Talking to Business Standard, a senior official of KPT, said on terms of anonymity, "We have received 31 EoIs for three proposed projects which will be developed through Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. There are 18 companies which have shown interest. The port authorities are finalising the approval list and awaiting the in-principle approval from the government."

These companies include Welspun, IL&FS, Leighton, Essar Constructions Ltd, ABG Shipyard Ltd, AFCONS Infrastructure Ltd., Gammon Infrastructure Ltd, West Asia Maritime Ltd, Regal Shipping Pvt Ltd, Zoom Developers Ltd, Bombay Marine Engineering Works Pvt. Ltd, Arcadia Shipping Ltd, SKIL Infrastructure Ltd (all from Mumbai), Gokul Refoils & Solvent Ltd, (Ahmedabad), Gautam Freight Pvt Ltd and JM Baxi & Co. IMC Ltd (Chennai) and Nitesh Infrastructure, (Bangalore).

"Out of 31 EoIs, 16 are for building offshore berthing facility at Tuna, 6 EoIs are for the development of Ship Building Yard at Tuna, and the remaining are for setting up of a SPM at Veera in Kutch. There are four companies, namely Nitesh Infrastructure, IMC Ltd, Ragal Shipping and SKIL Infrastructure, which have sent EoIs for all three proposed tenders." the official added.

The proposed project of setting up of the ship building yard is worth around Rs 2,000 crore and it will be an international standard ship building yard. The official also said that KPT has also planned a smaller ship building facility at Kandla.

These projects will be developed on a build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis by the selected private developer. The official added that around 1,200 acres of land has been chosen at Tuna where natural deep draft is available.