In yet another setback to the Vizhinjam International seaport project of Kerala, the Union home ministry on Wednesday denied sanction to the Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ) to continue with the bidding process.
Two companies, Welspun Consortium and MPSEZ, had submitted bids for partnering in developing and operating the port in last August. Both the companies had got clearances from the defence ministry earlier and were awaiting green signal from the home and external affairs ministries. The state government can go ahead with the financial bidding process only after getting clearances from these two ministries. The denial note, however, did not specifically mention the reason.
Fourteen companies, including Shipping Corpo-ration of India (SCI), had expressed interest in the project and 12 were selected to submit the technical and financial bids. SCI did not submit the bid.
Ahemadabad-based MPSEZ, an Adani group company, runs Mundra port, the largest private sector port in the country. On the other hand, Mumbai-based Welspun is a consortium of Welspun Infratech, Welspun Corporation and Leighton Welspun Contractors.
The Vizhinjam Inter-national Deepwater Multi-purpose Seaport is proposed to follow the Landlord Port Model, where dredging, reclamation and basic infrastructure like construction of break-water and quay will be done by Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited, fully-owned by the government. The port operations would be on a public-private partnership model while terminal superstructure would be built by a private operator, who will also operate and maintain it for 30 years. The port would have a quay length of 2,000 metre in three phases. It would be designed to cater primarily for container transshipments besides multi-purpose and break bulk cargo.
Development of the port along with external infrastructure work is envisaged to be carried out in phases with cumulative cost estimated to be around Rs 6,595 crore.
Phase 1 would cost Rs 3,040 crore. The project is proposed to be funded through Rs 1,130 crore as equity from the state government while the balance would be raised as debt.
