Kandla, one of India's busiest ports, will award a 1.2 billion rupee ($27 million) contract to build a container terminal in the next five months, the port's chairman, A.K. Joti, said on Wednesday.
More than a dozen private infrastructure and shipping firms have shown interest in bidding for the project, which will be on a 30-year long build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, he said.
"The companies which have expressed interest have been told to submit details on their management partners as several of them do not have expertise in managing a port," Joti told Reuters.
Companies in the fray to build the terminal include Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Punj Llyod Ltd, Gammon India Ltd, Lok Prakashan Ltd, ABG Heavy Industries Ltd and Sharjah-based Gulftainer Company Ltd.
Kandla port, located on India's west coast, is favoured by traders of commodities like wheat, rice, soymeal, edible oils, chemicals and petroleum products because of its strategic location and easy access to the land-locked northern states.
The port - which has 11 dry cargo berths, six oil jetties and a single buoy mooring (SBM) for petroleum products - is in the process of adding three more berths to enable large panamax vessels to dock.
The companies will have to submit details of their collaborators by March 26 and the port's board of trustees will then evaluate the proposals and invite final bids from shortlisted candidates.
"We hope to award the contract by August," Joti said.
Kandla port's efforts to launch the container terminal have been delayed for nearly two years after the Australian P&O company turned down a proposal to build the terminal as it was denied monopoly status.