September 08, 2008

PSA Corporation and DP World racing for Ennore Port

It is reported that container port operators PSA Corporation and DP World are bracing for a fight for rights to develop and operate a new USD 321.42 million container handling facility at Ennore Port near Chennai.

Ennore Port had invited initial qualification bids in early March 2008 from companies keen on developing and operating the facility with an annual capacity of 1.5 million TEUs for 30 years and both PSA and DP World confirmed that they would bid for the project at Ennore Port.

Hoverer, according to the fresh guidelines by the union government on regulating tariffs at major ports, Ennore Port has fixed the tariff before inviting price bids from short listed operators. Mr A Rajagopalan operations director at Ennore Port said that "In the case of the container terminal, the successful private operator will not have the freedom to set tariffs. The operator will be entitled to charge a pre-determined user fee from its customers."

The foreign investors will be facing competition from local players such as Gammon Infrastructure Projects, a unit of Mumbai based construction firm Gammon India, for the Ennore project.