Kandla port project hots up

The race for the Rs 2,000-crore ship building yard project at Kandla, India, is hotting up with as many as 14 leading infrastructure companies in contention.

These include large Indian companies such as ABG group, Essar Construction, Bharati Shipyard and L&T as well as foreign players such as South Korea?s Hanzin Heavy Industries and a leading port developer from the UK. Kandla Port Trust has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) and plans to float the request for qualification (RFQ) document in three months? time.

Other companies in the race include: Nitesh Infrastructure (Bangalore), Afcons Infrastructure (Mumbai), SKIL (Mumbai), Jaypee Group, Bombay Marine Engineering Works, Regal Shipping (Gandhidham), Parekh Marine Services (Gandhidham) and Jaisu Shipping (Kandla).

KPT intends to invite global tenders for the project ship repair/ship building complex on private participation basis. KPT plans a larger yard at Tuna and a smaller one at Kandla. The trust has already got a feasibility report for the project prepared and it will be developed on a build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis by a private developer which will be selected through international competitive bidding.