Paradip Port Authority has disqualified APSEZ from bidding for a tender to build a dry bulk cargo terminal with 25-million tonne (mt) capacity. On March 10, the Paradip Port Authority disqualified APSEZ, a week after the Andhra Pradesh High Court upheld the decision of the Visakhapatnam Port Authority to exclude APSEZ from a tender for mechanisation of West Quay Berths 7 and 8 at the port in Vizag, citing the closure of APSEZ’s coal terminal. According to sources briefed on the subject, the Visakhapatnam Port Authority had informed other State-owned ports about the closure of APSEZ’s coal terminal in Vizag and the company’s disqualification from the West Quay Berths 7 and 8 bids. A standard tender condition followed by all State-owned major ports says that “An Applicant including any Consortium Member or Associate should, in the last three years, have neither failed to perform on any contract, as evidenced by imposition of a penalty by an arbitral or judicial authority or a judicial pronouncement or arbitration award against the Applicant, Consortium Member or Associate, as the case may be, nor been expelled from any project or contract by any public entity nor have had any contract terminated by any public entity for breach by such Applicant, Consortium Member or Associate.”
