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A consortium led by the Abu Dhabi Ports Group has reportedly filed an initial bid on a tender floated by India’s V O Chidambaranar Port Authority, with an investment of $845 million.
Located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the tender has invited bidders to build a 4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) capacity container terminal, which will be in the port’s outer harbour, according to a report by India’s Economic Times, citing multiple sources.
The other high-profile bidder includes Vedanta Ltd, the Indian unit of the London-listed conglomerate, Vedanta Resources Plc, the report added.
Sources further told ET that the Abu Dhabi-listed logistics facilitator was unlikely to win the bid over security concerns due to its operation of a container terminal at Pakistan’s Karachi Port and its business ties with China’s Cosco Shipping in. Despite contrary reports, a ministry source quoted by Reuters in 2016 confirmed that while India has not banned Chinese firms from investing in its ports, it takes a cautious approach with firms working with them.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Daniel Luiz)
