None of the three bidders has submitted a final proposal for the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Seaport (VISL) container terminal PPP project in India.

The three shortlisted bidders were the following:

• ESSAR Ports
• A consortium of Srei Infrastructure and OHL
• Adani Group

The port is expected to be one of the largest ports in the world. It is envisaged to provide a total of 2000 m of quay length in three phases. The project involves the development of a container transshipment terminal with a capacity to load 600,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year initially, which can be scaled up to 1 million TEUs as per demand. Once completed, ships with a capacity of even 18,000 TEU could dock.

The project would be developed on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. It would have a contract period of 40 years which could be extended by another 20 years.

The total project investment is estimated at Rs40.5 billion (US$650 million).

Last week we reported that the project had got viability gap funding (VGF) from the government of India. VGF is a one-time grant given by the central government to support PPP projects in infrastructure that are economically justified but fall short of financial viability. The amount of VGF would be equivalent to the lowest bid for capital subsidy, but limited to a maximum of 20% of the total project investment.

Vizhinjam is a locality of Thiruvananthapuram city in the state of Kerala. Vizhinjam is a natural port, which is located close to the international ship route and has a natural depth of 24 metres.