The Chennai Port Trust (India), through its Civil Engineering Department, has issued a request for qualification (RFQ) for the development of Jawahar Dock (east) Berths as a Multi-Cargo Terminal at Chennai port.

The proposed terminal, which is expected to handle 5 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units), was conceived in 2006.

The project will be developed under a public private partnership (PPP) mode on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. The concession will be for a period of 30 years.

The total project investment is estimated at about Rs50 billion (US$814 million).

Interested parties had to submit qualification documents by 30 October 2014, but the deadline has been extended to 10 November 2014.

The Chennai Port Trust has launched this project twice, but on both occasions few bidders showed interest and the port authority found the quotations on revenue sharing too low to be acceptable.

Chennai Port, one of the largest artificial ports in India, is the largest in Bay of Bengal and second largest containerize hub in India. The port handles transportation of automobiles, motorcycles and general industrial cargo.

There are other port PPP projects in tender stage in India, including:

• Coal terminal PPP at Cochin Port
• Single Point Mooring (SPM) and Allied Facilities for Kandla Port
• Vizhinjam port container terminal PPP
• Multipurpose cargo terminal at the Mormugao port in Goa

See invitation for RFQ:http://www.chennaiport.gov.in/downloads/np1-39.pdfSee deadline extension announcement:http://www.chennaiport.gov.in/downloads/np1-39b.pdf