DP World awards Vallarpadam terminal civil works to Simplex

MUMBAI: DP World has awarded the $150-million civil construction contract for the first phase of International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam (Kochi) to Simplex Consortium, a domestic civil engineering and construction major.

Just a week ago, DP World had threatened that it may be forced to pull out of the ICTT project if strikes continued to paralyse operations at Kochi terminal.

Ganesh Raj, senior vice president and managing director of DP World sub-continent region, said that "the Cochin Port Trust (CoPT) has taken measures to reign in increasing number of strikes initiated by a section of labour and contractors."

Royal Haskoning, ICTT's consultants, conducted an in-depth evaluation of technical capabilities of four Indian bidders along with DP World, before finalisng the contract to Simplex. Construction is to begin next month and complete in 24 months.

The first phase involves building 600M of quay, an on-dock railhead serviced by rail-mounted gantry cranes, 30 hectares of yard, and acquisition of six super post-panamax cranes. Phase-1 of the terminal will be completed by early-2009 and will have 1million TEU capacity.

"Vallapardam will be a key facility in our network of 42 terminals globally. DP World is committed to Cochin for the long term, and to meeting the growing needs of our Indian customers," said Mr Raj. The preliminary design of the project, developed after detailed testing, was approved by the CoPT in November 2006.

Strategically located on the main east-west global shipping lanes and as India's largest individual terminal, Vallarpadam is destined to develop as the premier gateway to southern India while offering analternative to Sri Lanka and Singapore for container transshipment. DP World has the mandate to build the ICTT and operate it for 30 years.