Five bidders qualify for Vizhinjam project

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 31 (UNI) The Rs 5348 crore Vizhinjam Deepwater Container Terminal was all set to take off with five consortium qualifying for the next stage.

After the initial evaluation of the bids received by 1630 hrs deadline set by the Government, State Minister in charge of Port M Vijayakumar told newspersons that the next stages of processing technical bid and financial bid would be completed within four months and the work on the project would start without any delay under the Built-Operate-Transfer mode.

Those who qualified in the tender process were Apollo Enterprises Ltd in tie-up with D S Constructions Ltd and KGL Ports International, Dubai, Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd with Maytas and OPM, Singapore, Videocon Industries Ltd with Gammon India, Gammon Infra and Sical Logistics, Lanco Infragtech with Lanco power and Pembinaan Redzai Sdn Bdh, Malaysia and Zoom Developers with Portia Management Services, UK and Peter Franenkel and Partners, UK.

Mr Vijayakumar said the project would be completed in three phases and the first phase would be operational within three years. The State Government would provide rail-road connectivity to the project. The Vizhinjam Port has two advantages -- it needs no dredging and it falls very close to the International Shipping route. It is an all-weather Port and the International Shipping line is just one nautical mile off Vizhinjam coast.

The proposed site was endowed with natural depth of 24 m as close as one nautical mile from the sea coast.

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