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EPC bids for Vizhinjam by March


Posted on 21 Dec 2011

Kerala is planning to invite global engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) bids for the Rs.7,800-crore Vizhinjam port project by March, Ports Secretary Manoj Joshi said here on Tuesday.

He said the State government expected to get the environment impact assessment (EIA) nod from the Union Environment Ministry by June-July.

The assessment, being conducted by a consortium of L&T-Ramboll and Asian Consulting Engineers, will report on the expected impact of the project on marine life and ecology, among many aspects.

Mr. Joshi said officials of Aecom, the global consultants for the EPC bids for the project, would reach the port site anytime now. Their inspection was crucial for floating the global EPC tenders.

Mr. Joshi was here as a member of a delegation, led by Public Works Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju, to study concrete roads in the city.

Mr. Kunju said the government would convert the 25-km Seaport-Airport Road in Kochi into concrete, and expressed hope that work could begin before the monsoon.

Earlier in December, the port project crossed a major hurdle when the External Affairs Ministry cleared an Australian firm, Leighton Engineering Holdings, a partner in the Welspun Infratech Consortium, shortlisted as one of the operators of the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport.

A consortium led by Mundra Ports & SEZ was cleared by the Defence Ministry. These two were declared successful bidders, after they qualified in their technical bids after 12 others, including a Shipping Corporation of India consortium, backed out. However, they are yet to secure no-objection certificates from the Union Home Ministry.

Asked about the funding issue with the Centre, as also the ownership structure, he said, “We are not bothered about the major port tag. Our objective is to ensure that the port project is implemented at the earliest.” For a port to get the ‘major port' status under the Major Ports Act, majority ownership (51 per cent) has to be with the Centre. But Kerala wants the proposed port under its ownership and control. Mr. Joshi, however, said that a final decision would be taken after understanding the allocation for the ports sector in the 12th Five Year Plan.

Completion

Asked when the Rs.4,000-crore first phase would be completed, Mr. Joshi said it was too early to fix a date, as many crucial permissions had to be in place and the civil work was yet to be started. Three-fourths of the first phase investment would be made by the government. The project will be carried out in three phases. Under the current plan, the State is planning to flag off the first container ship in 2015.

A landlord model is planned for the port, under which dredging, reclamation, and provision of basic infrastructure, such as construction of breakwater and the quay, would be done by the State-owned Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd., while the port would be operated by a private party, which would build the terminal structure and maintain it for the first 30 years. When operational, Vizhinjam will have the deepest port in the country, dwarfing the ones in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam. I

Source - The Hindu