Thiruvananthapuram One full year after the Union Cabinet spiked it, fearing cross-interests of China, the bid-evaluation on India's first motherport limped back last weekend. On its second coming, however, the project has armed itself with an exotic 'Swiss challenge' clause.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai-based Zoom Developers has returned to the Vizhinjam fray, replacing its last year's controversial Chinese partners with a more acceptable UK-based duo.
Left parties, one may recall, are still simmering at the Centre slamming the doors on both the Chinese consortium (for Vizhinjam) and Hong Kong-based Hutchison (for Mumbai and Chennai ports). Just last month, Communist Party of India (Marxist) mouthpiece, People's Democracy, raged in an editorial that a level playing field for all was absent in the port sector.
The dilly-dallying had made the project costs too unwieldy, top officials of Vizhinjam Deepsea ICT told FE. When the state signed up L&T Ramboll to do a re-estimate, to its dismay the project costs for Phase I had shot up from Rs 4,230 crore (by 2003 prices) to Rs 5,348 crore. Second, the proposed motherport is eyeing business of at least half of the 50,000-odd motherships trafficking the Suez Canal route. The delay could give an edge to other countries.
At the same time, the Kerala government has offered the Swiss Challenge. In the Swiss Challenge method (a football term), the government gives the challenger a chance to make better offers than the first contestant, then allows the original contestant to countermatch. So, after the 30 years of BoT tenure, the selected Vizhinjam partner is empowered to match the best bidder and reclaim the project, if the state goes for bidding again.
The five consortia that bid were (a) DS Constructions, Apollo Enterprises and Dubai-based KGL Ports International (b) Nagarjuna Construction, Maytas and Singapore-based OPM (c). Videocon Industries, Gammon India, Gammon Infra and Sical Logistics (d) Lanco Infratec, Lanco Power and Pembinaan Redzai Sdn Bdh and (e) Zoom Developers and UK-based Portia Management.
Source : financialexpress.com (Author: M Sarita Varma)
