Bhavnagar gets ₹1,750-cr brown-field port

The Gujarat Maritime Board has decided to develop a brown-field port in Bhavnagar at a cost of over ₹1,750 crore under the Swiss Challenge Route (SCR). This is only the second port development to be taken up by this method, after GMR Infrastructure bagged a green-field commercial port project near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. While SCR allows innovation, the traditional way of awarding tenders through global bids is still the most favored by investors in the port sector. The Gujarat Maritime Board had received a proposal from Foresight & Padmanabh Mafatlal Consortium to develop CNG terminal and other cargo terminals at Bhavnagar port under the Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer (BOOT) model. The board, in October last year, recommended inviting bids under the SCR, which is a lesser-known and lesser-used method of bidding in the country.