Thiruvananthapuram: No bids have been received by Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL) for the port and a 600,000 teu capacity container transhipment terminal, prompting the company to extend the date for submission of bids by an extra month.
Three leading port operators out of the original five which had evinced interest in the project had procured the RFP (request for proposal) documents.
But none ended up turning in an offer by 11 a.m. on February 20, the specified final date for submission of bids for the INR40.89bn ($650m) project, which can be scaled up to 1m teu capacity if the demand increases.
The five companies are Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Essar Ports, Gammon Infrastructure Projects, a consortium of Srei Infrastructure Finance and Obrascon Huarte Lain SA, and a joint venture of Concast Infratech and Hyundai Engineering and Construction.
The project has a contract period of 40 years, which can be extended by another 20 years by mutual agreement.
