No bidders for Vizhinjam deepsea port

Thiruvananthapuram: The much-awaited multi-crore Vizhinjam International Deepwater Seaport project hit a hurdle with no companies bidding for its construction and operation work till the last date for the process Friday, prompting officials to extend it by one month.

Vizhinjam Seaport International Ltd (VSPL), the special purpose vehicle set up for implementing the project, said the tender for awarding the contract was not finalized and time for submitting bids have been extended by one month.

“No bidding took place today. We are holding a pre-bid meeting and time for submitting tenders have been extended by one more month’, VSPL MD and CEO A.S.Suresh Babu said.

The contract is for building port superstructure, estimated to cost of Rs.6,000 crore, and operate the port for a period of 40 years. Five major port operating companies have qualified for submitting tenders after global tender floated by (VSPL).

But only three entities—Essar Ports, Adani Ports and a consortium of Srei Infrastructure and OHL—had submitted expression of interest for submitting tenders but they also did not submit final bid.

State excise and ports Minister K. Babu said he was surprised that nobody had turned up for the bidding. The government would examine if there was any attempt to derail the project, he added.