Around 11 major companies including L&T, PSA and Maersk are understood to have shown interest in the proposed around Rs 1,200 crore container terminal project at Ennore Port.
The board decided to float new global tenders as Eredene Capital PLC, a UK-based infrastructure fund has withdrawn from the Ennore Port container terminal project due to economic slow down.
A senior official from the Port said: "Once again we will float global tenders soon, inviting parties to take part in the Request for Qualification (RFQ) process for creating a mega container terminal at Ennore. The decision was taken at Monday's board meeting, in which it was decided to seek re-bids."
In August 2010, Ennore Port signed a concession agreement with Bay of Bengal Gateway Terminals Pvt Ltd, to develop a Rs 1,407 crore container terminal at Ennore port, near Chennai.
Bay of Bengal Gateway is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) company formed for the project with members being Grup Maritim TCB, S.L., Spain; Obrascon Huarte Lain, S.A., Spain; Lanco Infratech Ltd and Eredene Capital PLC, UKôIndia, which has a 22 per cent shareholding in BoB.
The Port decided to go for a fresh tender, for which Expression of Interest (EoI).
The official said, size of the terminal has been revised from around 1000 meters to around 750 meters, based on the responses received from these companies. The terminal's capacity may also come down, which will result in reduction in the project cost. Earlier, it was expecting a project cost of around Rs 1,407 crore.
The container terminal will be constructed in two phases on build, operate and transfer model involving public-private partnership for a concession period of 30 years. The first phase costing over Rs 1,270 crore is expected to have a capacity to handle 1.4 million tonne of twenty-foot equivalent units of containers.
EPL, which is the first corporate port in the country set up by the Union Ministry of Shipping, would probably call for Request for Qualification (RFQ) by the end of this month and would shortlist the bidders based on their bids.
The company is expecting to award the tender before December 2013. From then, it would take around 30 months to complete the terminal, said the official.
