Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh has rejected the only bid by a private firm for the Extension of the existing Container terminal at Visakhapatnam Port on DBFOT basis because it was below expectations.

Visakha Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd, which runs the existing container terminal at Vizag port, had quoted a revenue share of 4% when the price bid was opened in May. The port rejected it last Friday, July 5th.

RITES Ltd advised the port to analyze the bid submitted by Visakha Container Terminal. RITES Ltd suggested that the ideal revenue share for the project at the container-handling rates approved by the port tariff regulator should be in the range of 20-25%.

Visakha Container Terminal is 74% owned by Mumbai-based logistics firm United Liner Agencies of India (Pvt) Ltd and 26 % owned by Dubai's DP World Ltd. The current terminal can manage 400,000 containers a year.

The new project involved expanding the container-loading capacity at Vizag port by an additional 600,000 containers a year with an investment of Rs.633.11 crore. The RFQ had been launched in August 2012 and had suffered several delays for the submission.

"The port management will decide the next course of action shortly which could be either calling for fresh price bids from all the seven short-listed bidders or re-tendering the project altogether," a port official said.Other shortlisted bidders had been: Gangavaram port, Navayuga Engineering Company, Welspun Projects Limited, Gammon Infrastructure Projects Limited, Adani Ports and SEZ Limited and Simplex Infrastructures Limited.